Broken
by Sorcerer's Muse
Summary: How do you go on when the one thing you counted on is gone? What do you do, where do you go, when you find life has passed you by? Nine years has passed since Harry defeated Voldemort. Nine years he spent in a coma.
1. Chapter 1: June 2008

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 1 June 2008**

* * *

Harry James Potter hurried up to the shiny new truck that had pulled to a stop a short distance ahead of him. He reached the door just as the driver leaned over and opened it for him. Harry slung his backpack off, and dropped it in the bed of the pickup before climbing into the cab of the truck and shutting the door.

"Thanks," he said to the driver.

The man nodded to him and pulled back onto the narrow winding road without saying anything. They rode in silence for a few miles before the driver turned to him. "Where you heading, friend?" he asked.

Harry reached into his pocket, pulled out the folded newspaper ad and held it out so the man could see it.

The driver glanced at it for a second and nodded. "I'm actually heading right by there, won't be a problem to drop you off."

"I've been walking for the last three days, how much further is it?" Harry asked.

"'Bout 50 miles," the man replied.

Harry nodded at the man's answer.

"So, you got a name?" the driver asked after a few moments of silence.

"James. James Black," Harry answered quietly while staring out the passenger window of the truck's cab.

"Bill," the man said holding out his hand.

Harry turned back to the older man. "Thanks, Bill," he replied shaking his hand and then turning back to look out the window. As they traveled, the pine and aspen trees of the forest started to encroach tighter and tighter against the edge of the road. Around every bend, there was another lake or bog, and the scenery seemed to pull them back in time. Wildlife became more abundant, with Harry spotting a moose deep in one of the bogs and then, craning his neck out the window to follow the flight of a bald eagle as it rode the thermals in search of prey. As the eagle disappeared from his view, he settled back into his seat and the two of them continued to ride in companionable silence for about 20 minutes before either spoke again.

"It's beautiful up here," Harry remarked as the road they were traveling moved up and traversed a ridge, the ground falling steeply away on either side to long narrow lakes in the valleys.

"Yep," was all he got for an answer. After another few miles Bill spoke again. "Where you from, James?"

Harry was quiet for a moment before he replied. "England."

"We get people from all over up here. Think the lodge has one from Russia, another from Australia right now. There was even one from Bermuda last winter, if you can believe it. He lit out pretty quick after his contract was up." Bill laughed at the memory of the man from Bermuda.

Harry looked over at Bill, a curious expression on his face.

"The cold of a northern Minnesota winter didn't really agree with him," Bill said with a last chuckle.

"How cold does it get?" Harry asked.

"Coldest day last winter was 58 degrees below 0."

Harry blanched. "Centigrade?" he asked.

"Cripes no, son. Fahrenheit, I think I'd move to Bermuda myself if it hit 58 degrees below centigrade." Harry stared at Bill and then both of them started laughing.

"Suppose that was pretty stupid," Harry said once he stopped laughing.

"No, just a product of where you were raised."

"Yeah," Harry answered quietly.

Bill noticed the pain fill Harry's brown eyes before he returned to starring out the window again.

Harry checked his reflection in the side mirror of the truck. Sometimes he barely recognized himself with the glamour spell over the lightening bolt scar on his forehead and the brown tinted contacts he wore instead of the wire frame glasses of his youth. His hair, however, was still the same untidy black mop it had always been.

The two of them rode in silence the rest of the way to the lodge. When they got there, Bill parked the truck and turned to James again.

"So you're looking for a job then?" he asked.

Harry turned to him. "Yes."

Bill nodded at him. "That's good, because we're full up for the summer on guests. It's a long walk back to town, and I'm not heading that way for at least a week."

Harry just stared at Bill for a moment before breaking into a sheepish grin.

"Westmark is my last name. My wife and I own this place, been in our family for just over a hundred years. I got need of a general handyman, and wait staff for the dining hall. Those are really just titles though. Some days the handyman ends up waiting tables and the wait staff is out fixing the roof on one of the cabins. Pay isn't great for either position, but you get room and board out of it."

Harry nodded at Bill. "Is this how things work up here? I kind of thought I might have to apply, maybe interview or something," he said.

"Generally yes, but since I'm the boss, and I like you, I think we can skip the formalities. Besides that, something tells me I really can't go wrong with you. I can also see that you're hurting from something and this place is good for things like that."

Harry stared at the floor of the truck, willing the tears that were always close, but only Hermione had seen, not to come now. Bill's words seemed to echo back and forth in his mind and nothing he could do could stop them. He was hurting, but he didn't think anything was going to help with the pain this time. Not after she had betrayed him. What had been the tiniest flicker of hope in his chest had died the day Hermione had finally told him why Ginny hadn't visited him. He had known at that instant he had to leave. Leave England, the Burrow, all of it, it all had to go. He didn't think he would ever live again and it was too late to die.

"Whatever you want to pay, I'll accept. And I'm willing to do almost anything," Harry said, finally looking up and meeting Bill's eyes.

"Come on then," Bill said as he climbed out of the cab of the truck. "I'll show you to your room and you can tag along with me for the rest of the day."

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	2. Chapter 2: March 2013

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 2: March 2013**

* * *

Harry woke with a start and stared into the darkness of his bedroom, searching once again, for what his heart felt, but his mind knew was not there. Cursing under his breath, he climbed out of bed and padded to the bathroom. He showered and shaved then after a quick bite to eat left his house and headed for the lodge where he had worked since Bill had picked him up along the side of the road almost five years ago.

Harry walked into the lobby and checked the guest list for the week; smiling slightly to himself as he recognized the regulars who came back every year. Grabbing a thermos and a couple of mugs he headed for the west end of the property where he and Bill were working on two new cabins for the fall hunting season.

"Morning, Bill," Harry said as he set down the mugs and thermos on a plank set across two sawhorses.

"James," Bill replied with a nod. He reached out and took the cup of coffee that was offered and they sat quietly together for a few minutes before Harry got up and started hauling in the 2x4's they would need for framing up the interior walls that day. As the day settled into late morning, the two of them fell into the easy rhythm they had established over the last few years of working with each other.

"New waitress started last week," Bill commented after a few hours. Harry didn't reply and they kept working, putting up the last wall and then moving to install the bathroom sink.

"I met her, nice girl. Shauna was her name, right?" Harry said almost an hour later

"Saw her giving you the eye yesterday," Bill answered.

Harry sighed to himself. "I'm not interested, Bill. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"What's it going to take to get you interested, James?"

Harry smirked at him.

"I mean I could parade the 10 most gorgeous women in the world naked across a stage in front of you and you would be more interested in watching the moon come up," Bill said to him.

"You can count on the moon," Harry remarked. "It's always there."

"Not always, James, sometimes there are clouds hiding it."

"It's still there, Bill." They fell into silence for a while before Bill spoke again.

"James,"

"Yeah, Bill?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," Harry answered with a smirk.

"I'm being serious, you git."

"Ha, British slang, you owe me a beer," Harry crowed triumphantly. In response, Bill chucked a scarp of 2x4 at Harry that he quickly reached up and caught.

Bill whistled in admiration. "Still got those reflexes, don't you?" he said.

Harry starred at the golden colored piece of wood for a moment, remembering when those reflexes helped him snatch another golden colored object out of the sky. He snapped out of his trance a moment later.

"Yeah, Bill I do." Harry set the block of wood down, turned and walked away from the construction area down towards the lake. Bill followed him and stood silently at his side looking out over the lake with him.

"There was another lake that I used to spend a lot of time at; looking out over it just like this," Harry said quietly.

"What did she do to you, James?" Bill asked.

Harry turned to his friend and just looked at him with sad eyes. "My name is not James, Bill."

"I've known that since the day I picked you up on the side of the road."

Harry nodded. "You've never asked me about my past before."

"Didn't think you were ready to talk about it," Bill said as he turned and headed back to the cabin. Harry followed him and when he got there Bill handed him a cup of coffee before sitting down on an overturned bucket. Harry grabbed another bucket flipped it over and sat down staring at the floor.

"Bill, I don't think you would believe my past if I told you, but I'm willing to show you if you want to see it. After that, if you want to forget about what you saw, I promise you I can do that."

"You're going to show me something, and if I want to forget it, you can just erase it from my mind for me?" Bill asked.

"I could erase the fact that you ever knew me from your mind if I wanted to, Bill."

Bill looked at Harry for a moment or two before replying. "How might you do that, friend?"

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the container for his contacts. He took them out of his eyes revealing them in all their emerald green brilliance. Bill just watched him as Harry tucked the container back in his pocket; then closed his eyes and held his hand out to the side. Concentrating deeply Harry took a deep breath.

_"Accio Glasses,"_ he said. As he waited, Harry passed his other hand over his face removing the glamour spell that covered his scar. A few seconds latter his glasses came flying through the air into his hand, Harry slowly opened them and put them on, blinking as Bill went from blurry to in focus.

"My real name is Harry James Potter. I'm a wizard, and I can erase your memory with magic," Harry said.

Bill just stared at him unable to decide if what he had just seen really happened. "A wizard?" he asked.

"Yes, like Merlin of King Arthur's court. Unless I'm mistaken and someone has been born in the last 15 or so years, I am the most powerful wizard in the world. The last great Dark Wizard gave this scar on my forehead to me when I was an infant. He tried to kill me with a curse but it reflected back at him. He lost his body for 14 years before his servant used my blood to make a new one for him. In 1998 he and I fought again and I killed him. The effort of that battle left me in a coma for 9 years. You picked me up on the road to the lodge 4 months after I woke up."

Bill sat, gaping at Harry.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Harry asked.

"The story is a little far fetched," Bill replied. "But at the same time I wonder how you made those glasses fly through the air and that thing you did with your hand in front of your face with the scar…" Bill's voice trailed off.

Harry smiled at his friend. "Magic," he replied waving his hand in front of his face, hiding his scar behind the glamour spell once more. Harry then held his hand out and began pulling rocks out of the forest into the clearing. He arranged them in a circle creating a fire pit, and then levitated a bunch of wood scraps into the fire circle.

_"Incendio!"_ he barked, a bolt of fire leapt from his hand to the pile of wood igniting it into a roaring fire.

Bill's eyes had gone wide as he watched the display Harry put on. Finally he managed to find his voice. "Blimey," he remarked.

"That's two beers," Harry grinned at him. Bill just nodded.

"Do you want to know more?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"It won't be pretty, Bill. My life, except for the last 5 years I have spent at this lodge, has been horrid. I've fought a war, killed people, seen people murdered while they were standing right next to me. The things that Dark Wizard did to me and others make some of the worst dictators you have ever heard of look like they are pulling children's pranks."

"I would still like to know, Ja… Harry," Bill said, stumbling over the name change. "Maybe I can help you overcome the demon that haunts you if I know what happened to you."

Harry nodded at him in reply. "The best way would be for me to show you, Bill."

"How can you do that?"

"I'm going to let you in my mind, and I'll actually take you a few places to show them to you."

"Let me in your mind?"

"More like plant my memories in your mind, if you trust me."

"I've trusted you since I met you, J… Harry," Bill replied.

Harry nodded again taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly. The two of them sat in silence for a while before Harry spoke again. "Bill."

"Yeah, Harry?"

"It's not a demon that haunts me. It's a memory… a memory of an angel," Harry whispered.

"Why don't you show me, son," Bill replied. Harry looked up at his friend. Bill could see the pain in his eyes. A pain that reached to the depths of the young man's soul and he swore he could almost feel it himself.

"Just look into my eyes, Bill. It won't hurt, at least not in a physical sense," Harry said to him.

"Go ahead, son," Bill answered.

* * *

It had taken a week for Harry to confess everything to Bill. There had been a trip to Hogsmead and a walk up to the castle so Bill could see it first hand. There had been numerous moments when people in Hogsmead thought they recognized him only to see after a moment that his eyes were brown and that the scar they had always been told he had was missing. In all, it had been a long painful journey for Harry of seeing memories that had been almost forgotten.

Bill had taken it all in with a growing sense of awe for the world he never knew was there and admiration for the young man he thought he knew and was only now beginning to understand. Now the two of them sat at the table in the home Harry had built the third summer he had worked at the lodge.

"Bill, I need you to go back to calling me James," Harry said to him. "You saw what that world has made me out to be. If they ever find me over here, I'll have no choice but to leave and start over again."

"That shouldn't be too hard, James. I've always known you that way. It would take me a lot longer than a week to get used to Harry," Bill answered.

Harry smirked at him and then stared blankly into his coffee mug. "So, is there anything you want me to erase from your memory?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

"All of it, and none of it," Bill replied.

Harry looked at him and nodded. "Just let me know, and it will be gone," he said.

Silence fell over them for quite some time before Bill spoke again. "You still haven't answered my original question from last week at the lake, James."

Harry sighed deeply and bowed his head. Bill reached across the table and put his hand on Harry's shoulder, he could feel the tension in the younger man's body roiling off of him in waves. Finally Harry looked up and met his eyes.

"What did she do to you, James?" Bill quietly asked.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	3. Chapter 3: March 2015

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 3 March 2015**

* * *

The battered truck passed her, slowed to a stop, backed up a ways on the road and came to a stop a short distance in front of her. As she reached the tailgate, the driver reached across and opened the passenger door for her. Ginny shrugged off her backpack, dropped it in the bed of the truck and climbed into the cab pulling the door shut behind her.

"Thank you," she said to the driver as she brushed a lock off hair off of her face.

"You looked, knackered," the driver replied.

Ginny's eyes opened wide at the man's expression. "Are you from England?" she asked.

The driver blinked at her question and his mind raced over the last few seconds of their encounter looking for what could have given her the impression he was not a local. A sheepish grin came over his face a second later as he realized what he had said.

"I got a guy working for me from England. He makes me buy him a beer for every 'British' word I use," Bill replied as he pulled the truck back onto the road.

Ginny felt her heart race at Bill's words and quickly turned to look out the passenger window of the trucks cab, hoping he hadn't noticed that what little color existed in her face had drained from it.

Bill glanced over at her and sighed deeply. _She's as broken as he was,_ he thought to himself.

_As broken as he still is, don't you mean?_ his inner voice remarked.

"Name's Bill," he said reaching his hand out to Ginny.

Ginny turned back to him and shook his hand. "Ginny," she replied. "Ginny Weasley."

"Nice to meet you, Ginny," Bill replied with a smile. "Where can I drop you?" he asked after a moment.

"If you don't mind, I'll just ride until I feel like I'm in the right spot," Ginny said quietly.

Bill nodded and turned his attention back to the road in front of him. "Suit yourself, but there is only about 50 miles of road left."

Ginny just turned and went back to looking out the window.

Bill pulled the truck into its parking spot and shut the engine off. He sat there with his arms folded on the steering wheel for a minute before he spoke.

"That's as far as I'm going. If you head back up the drive and hang a right, there's about 15 more miles of road left. I'm not going back to town for a week or so, but if you wanted to, you could probably hitch a ride with one of the guests on their way out. If you're planning on staying a while, I need wait staff for the dinning hall, pay isn't great, but you get room and board out of the deal."

Ginny sat with her eyes closed, listening to Bill speak, battling with herself. She knew she was in the right place. She could feel his presence all around her, at least his presence as it was before he had fallen in love with her so many years ago. Sighing deeply she spoke without turning to face him.

"How much do you know?" she asked in a whisper.

"Enough," he answered.

"And?" Ginny asked turning her head to look at him.

"Life is hard, people make mistakes. Sometimes we hurt the people we love, sometimes, even though you don't deserve it, you get a second chance… Sometimes, you don't. All we can really do is say we're sorry and take it from there, but you will get no judgment from me," Bill replied.

Ginny closed her eyes tightly; gathering what little was left of her resolve before speaking. "I would like to stay for a while then."

"Come on then," Bill said as he opened the door of the truck and climbed out. "I'll show you to your room and then take you down to meet my wife, Maggie. She's in charge of the kitchen and wait staff, so you can tag along with her for the rest of the day."

Ginny climbed out of the cab, grabbed her backpack out of the bed and followed along behind Bill.

"How much you got in that bag anyways?" Bill asked turning to look over his shoulder at Ginny with a knowing smirk on his face.

Ginny couldn't help grinning slightly back at him. "Enough," she replied.

"Right," Bill answered as he held the door open for her. "By the way, I would appreciate it if you didn't say anything about the 'knackered' comment. I already owe him two beers this week," he said as Ginny walked past him.

"I guess you'll just have to buy me one then," Ginny answered as they went up the stairs.

Bill snorted in laughter. "I'm going to go broke with two of you running around this place."

Ginny set her bag down on the bed in the room Bill had shown her to. It was fairly small with a desk and chair on one wall under the window, a closet along the wall opposite the bed and a door leading to a small bathroom on the wall opposite the one with the window. She turned around in the room once and then faced Bill.

"I have to go back in the middle of June, but I can return next September if that is all right with you," she said.

"You can bring her here for the summer if you like. There are lots of kids for her to be with. And she can help out on the docks doing different odd jobs. Give her a chance to earn some pocket money," Bill replied as they headed back down the stairs.

"Bill," Ginny said, stopping him before they went out the door of the apartment building.

Bill turned around to look at her; Ginny's face was covered in a mixture of anguish and fear.

"I don't know how to thank you for what you have done for me today and for him over the years he has been here," she said.

Bill reached his hand out and put it on Ginny's shoulder giving it slight squeeze. Ginny reached up and placed her hand on his; grateful for the contact and compassion of someone other than her daughter for the first time in three years.

"Just wait, Ginny," he replied before heading out the door with her on his heels.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	4. Chapter 4: August 2016

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 4 August 2016**

* * *

Harry stood on the edge of the bluff looking out over the valley and lake. He could see the roofs of the buildings of the lodge and a few other private homes breaking the continuity of the tree cover below him. It was a nine-mile hike up to the top of this hill, and not for the first time, he thought about apparating back instead of subjecting his knees and ankles to the pounding of walking downhill for two hours.

Harry had to laugh at himself. When he first arrived at the lodge 9 years ago, other than the glamour charm on his scar, he had found it easy to give up using magic. In fact, other than the glamour charm, and the wards he had set on his home. He had not used any magic until the day he began confessing to Bill. It had been almost 5 whole years without it. Now, as more time went by, he found himself thinking about using it more and more often. Thankfully, when he did, he knew how and was powerful enough to mask it from the American Wizard Authorities.

Harry was fairly sure they would be up right quick to check things out if they got a whiff of magic being used in the area. The fact that no one had checked yet, went a long way to convincing him that he was the only sorcerer for many miles. At least he had been until about a year and a half ago. The fact that she had shown up had not surprised him in the least. In fact, he had known she was looking for him the day he confessed to Bill that he was a wizard.

He had known it would only be a matter of time until she found him. Harry had contemplated leaving when she first started to get close, but in the end decided to stay. This was his home now and he would be damned if she would take that away too. Besides, there was nowhere on this earth he could go and stay for more than a few years and she would not find him. Nothing, no magic of any sort, could hide him from her. They were connected, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had watched her numerous times over the last year plus, but they had not spoken one word to each other. In fact, he had not been within 20 feet of her during the time she had been here.

Harry stepped back from the edge of the bluff into the woods. Closing his eyes, he focused his mind, extending his senses into the woods just to make sure there was no one close. He then cast a befuddlement charm on himself, so anyone seeing it from a distance would not recognize what was happening, he then started running to the edge of the cliff throwing himself off of it. As he began to plummet to the ground, his body began to change shape. Powerful wings grew in place of his arms; catching the air. And where a moment before a man was falling to his death, an eagle was now soaring into the heavens.

* * *

Ginny looked up from her book as her daughter climbed out of the lake and sat down on the rock next to her. She gathered her long brown hair into her hands; rung what she could of the lake out of it and then lay back letting the sun warm her face.

"Had enough of the lake then?" Ginny asked.

"It never really warms up, the summer is too short up here," Stephanie answered.

Ginny smiled to herself. "Yes, and the winters are long. Bill says that last winter was one of the coldest in a long time."

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Did you know my birth parents?"

Ginny flinched slightly at her daughter's question. "No, Stephanie, I didn't," she replied in a whisper.

Stephanie sat up and faced her mother. "I didn't mean anything by it, Mum," she said to Ginny, boring into her with green eyes that could stop her heart as easily as someone else's once had, and she was sure, if he would only look at her, still could.

Ginny reached out and pulled Stephanie into her arms. "I know, sweetie. I just get scared as you grow up that you won't need me anymore. You're all I have; I don't know what would happen to me if I didn't have you."

Stephanie crushed Ginny in her arms. "You're the only Mum, I've ever really known and you always will be," she whispered into Ginny's ear before pulling away from her.

Ginny sat back on the rock and wiped the tears from her face. "Thank you, baby."

Stephanie scowled at her. "You know I hate it when you call me that."

Ginny sniffled and wiped her nose before replying. "Trust me, when that name comes of my lips for the last time, you'll be willing to do almost anything to hear it again."

Stephanie grimaced but then gave Ginny a quick smile. "Mum, why are we living here?" she asked after a moment.

Ginny felt her heart drop. It was only years of practice that allowed her to keep her face impassive and prevent Stephanie from seeing just how scared she was. _Please, Lord, I will if she asks, but don't make her want to leave,_ she silently begged before she answered.

"Don't you like it here?"

"Yes, I do," Stephanie, said. Ginny felt her heart start beating again. "It's beautiful and peaceful, and everything is Muggle, so it makes that class at school really easy. But I just wonder how we ended up here."

Ginny reached her hand out and touched her daughter's cheek. "I need to be here, sweetheart. Someday, I may be able to tell you why, but not now. Ok?"

Stephanie snuggled her face against Ginny's palm. "Ok," she replied.

"Why don't you go get cleaned up for dinner now," Ginny said. "Maggie is making your favorite tonight." Ginny couldn't help laughing as she saw her daughter's face light up in anticipation.

"Walleye?" she asked.

"Is that your favorite?" Ginny teased.

"I'm out of here," Stephanie said scrambling to her feet and running off to the apartments, leaving Ginny to pick up the towel and other sun bathing items strewn about.

"You can come out now," Ginny called over her shoulder.

Harry stepped out of the woods from behind the tree he had apparated to moments ago. He and Ginny looked at each other across the small clearing between the woods and the lake, Harry broke the silence first.

"I haven't felt that much fear in your heart since the day I woke up from the coma, I thought you were in danger."

"And you came, just like you promised you would," Ginny answered.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"I thought she was going to ask me to take her somewhere else. I thought she was going to ask me to leave."

"And you would have?" Harry's question was more of a statement.

Ginny finally broke eye contact with him and looked down at the ground. "My obligations are not just to myself and you anymore," she replied just loud enough for him to hear.

"Seems like they never were," Harry answered before turning around and walking away.

Ginny sank back down on the rock, her body trembling from the unmitigated pain she felt coming from the retreating back of the man walking away from her.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	5. Chapter 5: December 2016

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 5 December 2016**

* * *

Ginny sat leaning against the headboard of her bed in the small room she had been staying in since she came to the lodge a little less than two years ago now. Starring out the window at the falling snow, she absently stroked Stephanie's hair as she lay sleeping with her head in Ginny's lap.

"Wherever you are right now, I'm sorry, Harry," she said under her breath. "We should have been together today and every day for the last 9 years, and we would have if I had just been stronger... I'm so sorry for all the pain I've caused you."

"Who are you talking to, Mum?" Stephanie mumbled from her lap.

Ginny started and clutched at her chest at her daughter's question. "Merlin you startled me, Steph," she gasped.

Stephanie snuggled in closer on her mother's lap and pulled the covers tighter against the cold air seeping in through the cracks. "Who were you talking to?" she asked again.

"Myself," Ginny replied.

"Funny, I didn't know your name was Harry," Stephanie answered.

"I don't want to talk about this," Ginny snapped.

"You think I don't know, Mum, but it's impossible not too," Stephanie answered, tightening her hold around her mother's waist when Ginny tried to get up from the bed.

"I don't know what you're talking about young lady. Now let me go. I have a lot to do to get the lodge ready for Christmas on Saturday."

"You forget that you have me as slave labor for the next three days, Mum. We have plenty of time for a lie in, besides it's much to cold to get out from under the covers until the heat kicks on."

"You have homework to do. And I know that you have not finished it yet, young lady. Now let me go."

"Only if you tell me who Harry is," Stephanie retorted, holding on tighter as Ginny struggled against her. "Muther," Stephanie whined, "You're letting all the heat out."

"Stephanie Renee Davidson-Tanner, you're starting to make me very angry," Ginny snarled as she resorted to poking her daughter in the side to get her to let go. Stephanie yelped and sat up in the bed facing her mother head on. Ginny was startled by the anger present in her eyes.

"Who is he?" she demanded just below a shout.

"None of your business," Ginny snarled back at her.

"Right, I don't have the right to know why my mother is apologizing to someone I don't know for not being with him for the last 9 years when I know she was married to the only father I have ever known for 5 of those years," Stephanie screamed at her.

Ginny's eyes flashed in horror, her mouth dropped open and then the tears came in waves. Stephanie's eyes went wide and her face blanched; she had only seen pain like that in the eyes of one person before. She quickly reached out and pulled Ginny to her cradling her mother in her arms as she sobbed uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry, Mum, you're right it's none of my business. I'm sorry I made you cry; please stop. Please don't be mad at me, Mum," Stephanie pleaded with Ginny.

Ginny pulled her daughter to her as she began crying also. "No, baby. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself and I took it out on you," she answered as she got control of her emotions. "And you do have a right to know, Stephanie."

The two of them managed to stop crying and sat facing each other, Indian style, on the bed leaning their foreheads together clasping hands as they calmed down.

"Who is he, Mum?"

"You already know, baby."

"I know rumors, what the history books say, and what the Dailey Prophet prints, Mum. I want to know the truth."

"Harry James Potter, baby."

"It's all true then, everything they say about you and him?"

"Some of it, yes." Stephanie opened her mouth again but Ginny cut her off. "Please, baby. No more questions today. I promise, someday, to answer all your questions, but no more right now. Ok?"

"One more, Mum?"

Ginny sighed deeply. "You can ask, I won't promise to answer."

"He's here, isn't he?"

"Yes, baby."

Stephanie straightened up and scowled at her mother's tear streaked face. "I hate that name," she growled as she climbed out of the bed and headed to the shower.

Ginny waited for the bathroom door to close, before she crawled out of bed, and went to open the door of the apartment. "We're not at war anymore, you don't have to come running every time you feel fear of that nature in my heart," she said.

"Does she know who I am?" Harry asked.

"I expect she'll figure it out before too much longer."

Harry closed his eyes; his face contorting into a grimace.

"Eventually someone besides me will find you," Ginny remarked.

"You and Stephanie are the only sorcerers to have even come to this place without my invitation in the 9 years I've been here. For everyone else who knows I'm here, they agreed that the information would be in the trust of a secret keeper. Only you or her has the ability to give me away because you both found where I was without me giving you the information."

"I'm not leaving. I know the pain I cause you by being here is no more than I would if I was half the world away from you."

Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "How long are you going to stay here, Mrs. Tanner?"

"As long as it takes, Harry," Ginny replied.

"I've heard that before," Harry answered. "The girl who said it, died, March 3, 2007."

Ginny's face blanched and it was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling under her. Somehow she managed to stay standing and keep her eyes locked on Harry's. "Was it worth it?" she whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Because I won't deny that I deserve to have you inflict that kind of pain on my heart. And if it helps you to feel any better at all, I'll spend eternity letting you say any hateful thing that comes to your mind to me."

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he recovered from the wave of pain that had filled his own heart when the pain in Ginny's hit his. "It was the truth, Mrs. Tanner," he replied.

"Then why are you here?" Ginny asked.

"You know why I'm here," Harry retorted.

"Then you know the truth is different from what you say it is," Ginny answered barely above a whisper.

Harry clenched his fists at his sides trying to control his temper. It would just be better to leave before he did something he would regret. "I'm going to take Stephanie to my house today. I'm going to tell her who I am and I will use legillimency to determine if she is capable of keeping my identity and location secret. If she cannot, then I'm going to wipe her memory of the discussion you had with her from her mind," he said.

"You may come get her in the dining hall after lunch," Ginny answered. Harry turned, walked down the stairs and out the door. Ginny closed the apartment door, walked to her closet and pulled out clothes for the day before heading to the bathroom to shower.

* * *

Bill watched quietly as Harry came in the lodge and pulled a chair up next to Stephanie. Stephanie looked up at the man she knew as James and started in fright a moment later. She quickly looked around to see her mother watching from the ladder where she was hanging Christmas decorations.

"Go ahead, sweetie. You don't have anything to be afraid of," Ginny called to her.

Stephanie slowly nodded to her and started to gather up her books into her bag. "I just need to nip up to the apartment and put these things away," she said to Harry.

"I'll come with you," Harry replied following her out the door.

The two of them walked across the parking lot to the apartment building and up to Ginny's room. Harry closed the door behind them, casting a locking charm on it followed by a silencing charm on the room.

Stephanie whirled on him with her wand out as she heard the lock click on the door. "Who are you?" she demanded.

Harry chuckled. "You know who I am, and put your wand away. I assure you, you are as safe with me as you are with your mother; safer to tell you the truth."

"Your eyes are the wrong color, and you don't have the scar," Stephanie retorted, her hand starting to shake.

"Your mother said you were safe with me, don't you trust her?"

Stephanie scowled at him but slowly lowered her wand.

"Good choice, I would hate to have to explain an underage use of magic violation to the American Ministry of Magic," Harry remarked as he waved his hand in front of his face removing the glamour charm from his scar. "You don't mind if I keep the contacts in? I can't see a knut an inch from my nose without them or my glasses,"

"Contacts?"

"Come now, Stephanie. You're a smart girl. I know you take Muggle Studies at Hogwarts, don't tell me you don't know what contacts are."

"I know what they are, but your eyes are still brown."

"Fine," Harry sighed popping out one of the contacts. "There you go, green eyes, brown tinted contacts, happy now?" he asked as he put the contact back in.

"Why did you lock the door? And what's with the silencing charm?"

Harry grinned at her. "Wouldn't you rather apparate than drive?" he asked. "This gives me a safe place to bring you back too."

Stephanie's eyes flashed with anticipation and then disappointment. "I can't apparate. And even if I could, the American Ministry would, at the least, send a Howler."

"I'm more than capable of dual apparation. I'm also plenty capable of hiding the use of magic from the Ministry," Harry replied holding his hand out to her. Stephanie hesitated.

"You have a choice, Stephanie. You can be one of seven people in the world who knows where Harry Potter lives or you can have me erase the memory of today from your mind. Including the conversation you had with your mother about me this morning. Now, are you coming or am I erasing?"

Stephanie reached her hand for his. "How do you know about what happened between me and my mother this morning?" she asked stopping her hand and inch above his.

"Your mother and I are bound, Stephanie. Something happened to her this morning that terrified her. I felt the terror in her heart and thought she was in danger. I apparated outside of the door to your apartment because I thought she needed help. After that, well, you know the walls are kind of thin in here."

"Why didn't you leave when you knew she was safe instead of listening to our conversation?" Stephanie asked angrily.

"Because your mother told me to stay," Harry said closing his hand around hers. "Ready?"

Stephanie nodded, and with a small pop they were gone.

* * *

"Where is he taking her?" Bill asked after Harry had followed Stephanie out the door of the dining hall.

"She figured out why I'm here. He is giving her the chance to know who he is or he will erase the knowledge that Harry Potter is living somewhere in northern Minnesota near this lodge from her memory."

"And you trust him with your daughter?"

"You wouldn't?"

"Has he given you a chance to explain yet?"

"There is nothing to explain. Only an apology to give by being here tomorrow and the next day and the day after that until there are no more days left in my life."

"Will he ever accept it?" Bill asked.

"Would you?" Ginny replied.

"I like to think I would."

Ginny smiled sadly at him. "You're a kind man, Bill. Harry is too, but I don't think you comprehend what I did to him. I can count on two hands the number of couples who successfully completed the bonding we did. It was the most beautiful thing. I can't even begin to describe it. It has to be the closest thing to sitting next to God that can be found in this world, and I broke it. Now, it must be hell because I can't imagine anything worse and I have suffered many things in my life besides what I have done to Harry."

Bill shook his head sadly. "James told me I didn't understand either. Would you like to know what I told him?"

Ginny stopped what she was doing; looked down at him from the ladder and slowly nodded in reply.

"Don't put yours and James' pain and suffering on a pedestal for the rest of us mere mortals to admire. I understand that it is impossible for you two to separate yourselves from each other before death, but forgiveness on both your parts would heal you both and you could go forward, as one again, if you chose to."

"I have nothing to forgive Harry for," Ginny replied slightly confused at Bill's words.

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't, but you do need to forgive yourself," Bill replied.

"That will be harder to do than to get his forgiveness," Ginny answered.

"Then you might as well take your daughter and leave," Bill said as he handed her the last of the light strings.

* * *

"Nice place," Stephanie remarked after Harry had finished giving her a tour of the house.

"I like it," Harry replied as he set a mug in front of her.  
Stephanie took a sip and set it down on the table again.

"So you're in your 5th year now?" Harry asked.

"Yes,"

"What house?"

"Ravenclaw."

Harry smiled. "I have a few friends who were in Ravenclaw," he remarked.

"You didn't show me what is down that hallway," Stephanie commented.

Harry looked down the hall and then back to her. "A couple of guest rooms. I don't really go down there much. Hermione set them up and they kind of hurt to go into. You can go look at them if you want."

"Hermione is Ron's wife, correct?"

Harry was taken aback by her question. "Yes," he finally answered.

"I've met her once or twice. She has always been nice to me. So has Ron."

"Once or twice?" Harry asked.

"Mum doesn't have much contact with her family, Ron least of all."

"Why not?"

Stephanie focused her eyes on Harry's before replying. "I'm not sure, though I'm beginning to think it has something to do with you."

Harry pressed his palms into his eyes as he considered this information. Ron and Hermione never talked about Ginny in any of their letters, nor had they mentioned her on any of their visits. Now that he thought about it, no one had. Not after Hermione had told him in the hospital so many years ago, had any of the Weasleys even mentioned her name in his presence.

"Do any of them even talk to her?" he croaked.

"We used to see Grandma and Grandpa a few times a year for a couple of hours. If any of her brothers happened to be there then we saw them also. Grandma and Grandpa visited us one year for Christmas dinner, but none of the others ever came to the house. They all came to dad's funeral, but I haven't seen any of them since Mum came here. I exchange letters with Grandma a few times a year, that's about it."

"And your father's side?"

"The war was not kind to him. It took his parents and brother. There were a few uncles and aunts of his, but he was not close to any of them. There is no one left from my birth parents. Until I get married and have children of my own, I am the last in my bloodline."

"I never asked them to choose between us," Harry whispered.

"No, I don't expect you did," Stephanie replied as she set her teacup down. "How did you know what I liked?"

"Your mother takes it the same way," Harry answered with a far away look in his eyes.

"You really should go without the contacts, brown doesn't suit you."

Harry smirked at her.

"You can show me those rooms some other time," she said after a minute.

"You're very much like your mother was," Harry remarked as he fished a galleon out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"I'm very much like my mother is, not was," Stephanie answered, not flinching under the stare she got in reply. "What's this?" she asked turning her attention to the coin in her hand. "It's not a real galleon, I can tell that."

"No, it is an untraceable portkey. You can use it to travel between here, the Burrow, Hogwarts and the lodge."

"Why would I want to come here?"

"Because in one of those four places, no matter what trouble you're in, you will always be able to find someone to help you. That and my wards will allow you to practice magic without getting a howler from the Ministry," Harry answered.

"So you trust me then?"

"Yes," Harry replied as he reached across the table and put his hand on hers.

"I think I would like to go home then, James," she replied.

"Call me Harry, Stephanie."

"Then take me home, Harry," she said with a grin. And with a quiet pop they were gone.

* * *

As the door to the bathroom closed behind her daughter, Ginny got up from the bed and opened the door to the apartment. She just caught sight of Harry's back as he walked out the door of the building. Puzzled at what could have brought him there she frowned and started to close the door when she noticed the package on the floor. She picked it up, closed the door behind her and placed the package on the desk before she grabbed her clothes and headed for the bathroom door.

"Hey, you little brat, leave me some hot water," she called playfully to her daughter.

"If you wanted hot water you should have got up first," Stephanie snapped back at her.

"You have another Christmas package waiting for you," Ginny remarked. "From a boy," she teased playfully a second later.

"What?" Stephanie yelped shutting the water off and pulling open the shower curtain. "Who is it from?"

"You tell me, I didn't know you were dating anyone," Ginny remarked dangling the towel just out of Stephanie's reach.

"Muther," Stephanie whined. "It's freezing in here, give me that towel."

"Not until you spill," Ginny answered with a smirk.

Stephanie scowled at Ginny but the fact that she was freezing and soaking wet went a long way towards weakening her resolve. "His name is David, and we're not dating, he just asked me to go to Hogsmead when we get back to school after the holiday," she mumbled.

Ginny tossed her the towel and proceeded to climb in the shower herself. She moved quickly, not wanting to have Stephanie take her towel or turn off the hot water at the source when she found out that she had been had by her mother. She was just finishing getting dressed when she heard a shriek form her daughter and a second later the door to the bathroom flew open.

"You tricked me," Stephaine hissed at Ginny.

"I took the opportunity to point out that I am still smarter than you," Ginny replied brightly."

Stephanie's mouth flapped and sputtered before she finally came up with a response. "Well I lied."

Ginny grinned triumphantly at her daughter. "David is nice name you know. His last name is Finnigan, isn't it?"

"How… you… Arrrgh!" Stephanie sputtered and slammed the door in Ginny's face.

Ginny came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and looked around the room for the package Harry had left for Stephanie. Her eyes settled on her daughter's triumphant face as she sat at the desk pulling on her boots. "What did he give you?" she demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Stephanie retorted.

"Young lady," Ginny said threateningly. Stephanie ignored her and pulled her coat on before heading to the door to the apartment.

"Don't you dare walk away from me when I am talking to you," Ginny snapped at Stephanie as she opened the door.

"Let's just say school is going to be a lot more fun this term," Stephanie replied flippantly. "Being able to tell where everyone in the school is, new secret passages to explore, and a wonderful new cloak for me and David to sneak around with. I can hardly wait for the holidays to be over."

"He gave you the map and his invisibility cloak?" Ginny gasped, her eyes open wide in horror at the thought.

"The package is under the bed, there's a note in it," Stephanie said as she closed the door and headed to the dinning hall.

Ginny walked over and pulled the package out from under the bed, searching for the note she pulled it out of the box.

Stephanie:

I had a lot of fun at school with these things. I hope you do also. Breaking a few rules is part of going away to school. I did it, your mother did it, and I am sure your father did it. That said, trust is a precious gift. I trust you to exercise some judgment in your use of these items. If your mother lets you keep them, she is also.

Ginny stopped reading; put the note back in the box and slid it back under the bed. Stephanie had told her she had them, she would let her keep them until such a time as she might prove she did not deserve them.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	6. Chapter 6: October 2017

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 6 October 2017**

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Harry stood on the hill looking down on the small clearing in the woods where Ginny sat watching the fire burn in the pit she had made. And this time, for some reason, when he started to move, instead of leaving, he walked down and sat on the stump across from her. Ginny glanced up at him as he sat down and returned her attention to feeding the fire with small sticks without saying anything.

Harry had felt the mix of emotions in her heart as he had drawn nearer to her. Fear, anticipation, resolve, regret, resignation, all of them had danced together as he walked into the clearing. But now, as he sat down, resignation dominated. They both sat for some time watching the flames lick at the logs and sticks in the fire and the ashes floating in the updraft of heat into the cool night air.

"Did you know," Harry finally said, "that when you're in a coma, there are periods of time when you're actually awake. Where you know everything that's going on around you and you try desperately to respond in some way, only to slip back into the darkness?"

Ginny closed her eyes tightly trying to prevent the tears from coming. She had been waiting, hoping, praying for this and now that it was here she didn't know how she was going to live through it.

"I've been able to piece together a lot of what happened while I was in that coma. When I woke up, if you had told me I had only been out for a day I would have believed you. Because when you slip back into the darkness, you lose your memories of what happens to you during the periods where you're aware. But when you finally, truly wake up, things come back to you over time. You can put together a timeline of your memories from the coma. You can figure out what happened."

As Harry continued to speak, Ginny could no longer hold back her tears and they now slipped down her cheeks while her body shook as she softly sobbed.

"The first time I can remember being aware, there was a gathering of some kind. It turns out it was my 19th birthday. I had been in the dark for over a year at that point, and something had finally tugged at me enough to cause something in my mind to fire. I think it was the pain I felt coming from the heart of the woman I loved as she sang happy birthday to the man she loved and he didn't respond in any way. I tried so hard to reach her, to respond in some way. Finally as the emotion of how much I loved her filled my heart, it reached her. I know it did because the despair she felt left and I could feel hope growing in her heart.

"Things like this happened many times over the next 5 years. I know now, that the frequency that I was aware was increasing. I could feel in my heart that I was getting closer to waking and the girl I loved knew it. She could feel it too and even though I could feel sadness coming from her, hope was also growing because she believed I was coming back."

Ginny had now slipped off the log she had been sitting on to the bare ground. Her knees were pulled up tightly to her chest and her head rested on them. Her hands rested on the back of her head with her hair spilling messily over them, her face, her back and legs, like she was somehow trying to form a cocoon out of it and hide from what she was hearing.

"But then, the next time I was aware, something had changed. I could still feel the girl, and she still believed I was coming back, but it didn't give her hope anymore. Now all I could sense was fear and dread. And now, if I had struggled to reach her before, I became obsessed. But the healing process wouldn't be rushed no matter what I did. So, I continued to do the one thing that could reach her.

"I let my heart fill with love for her so that she could feel it. And I knew that she did. But instead of helping her, it only made her worse. I couldn't understand what was wrong. I had always been able to make things better for her, take away her pain and her fear. In fact, she told me once, that even before I met her, I had been able to take away her fear. So I continued to believe that if I could just wake up, take her in my arms, I could make everything better again."

Ginny now sat rocking back and forth on the ground, her tears were gone having been emptied from her eyes. Her breath came in short gasps as the pain radiated from Harry's heart into hers and she longed to be able to do something to stop it for him. There had been a time when her touch could do anything to him, bring him to his knees, lift him to the heavens, sooth a savage beast, or bring forth a rage that she was sure could scare Satan himself. All depending on what he needed at the time, she could give him, and now all she could do was give him pain.

"Finally, one day I was in one of the aware periods, and I was trying to reach my girlfriend when I felt a different girl I once knew, near me. She had just moved near my bed and taken my hand in hers. She was leaning down, whispering in my ear, telling me she had to leave but she would come back tomorrow. She kissed my forehead gently as she stood up and I actually felt it, and then as she started to pull her hand from mine I was able to grip her hand tightly and prevent her from leaving."

"After that day things became very busy in the room. I was aware almost all of the time, and I was able to respond to requests people made for me to squeeze their hand. Then one day I managed to open my eyes and look at this other girl. She asked if I knew who she was. What kind of question is that to ask your brother? Like I could forget Hermione, bossy, nosey, pushy, beautiful Hermione, my best friend and the girlfriend of my best mate. I managed to nod my head slightly at her and the tears that fell from her eyes spilled onto my face as she kissed my forehead and cheeks over and over again. The only word I managed to get out that day was "Ginny" and she ignored me. Instead over the next two months as I gained my strength back she brought everyone else. Everyone but the one person I wanted to see, the one person I needed.

"On top of not bringing her to me, no one would tell me anything when I asked, always skirting around the issue or telling me she would come soon. But I had figured out they were lying by now, because I could feel it in my heart. She knew I was awake; after almost nine years in a coma and even though it was killing her, and me. I knew she wasn't coming. Finally, one day I instructed the security guards that were keeping unwanted visitors away from me that the only person besides the healers who could enter my room would be Hermione. And she would only be allowed to stay if she would tell me why the girl I loved wouldn't come see me. She didn't want to tell me. I could feel absolute rage, bordering on hatred, for my girlfriend, that she was forcing Hermione to be the one to break this news to me."

By now, Ginny had stopped rocking back and forth on the ground. She had known this would be horrid, but nothing of the last 9 years could have prepared her for the pain that now threatened to stop her heart from even beating. In fact, she knew the only thing that kept it beating was her daughter. Stephanie still needed her and to finally give up and let the pain take her was not an option.

"Do you know what the worst thing was about finding out she had married someone else?" Harry asked after silence had surrounded them again.

"No," Ginny whispered.

"I could have just died instead of coming back," Harry answered. "I remember it like it happened just two seconds ago. It's the one thing from before any of the periods I was aware, the one thing from the darkness that I have been allowed to keep.

"I stood facing the veil, with my mother on the opposite side. She told me that I had done what I needed to, that Voldemort was dead. She told me I could come across if I wanted and begin the new adventure that awaited me. She told me that eventually, when my girlfriend was done in this world, she would join me in the next. We would be together again. It was my choice to go or to stay. She told me if I chose to stay, that it would take years for me to heal, to wake up, and that life would have passed me by. But I didn't care, she was here and I had promised her that no matter what, I would come back to her, and she had promised me she would wait no matter how long it took. Life might pass me by, but she would still be there, and it would be enough. I choose to come back and be with her. And when I finally woke up, she had left me….

"You left me Ginny," Harry finished in a whisper. Tears that he had kept at bay the whole time, tears that only Hermione had seen, fell from his eyes as the anguished question left his lips.

"You knew I was getting stronger, you could feel it. You promised me you would wait forever and you left me. How could you do that to me when you knew I was coming back?"

Ginny sat in stunned disbelief; she had known everything he had said the whole night. Not the specific details and memories, but all of the emotions of the last 19 years, ever since they had completed the bonding and tied their souls there was nothing that he felt that she did not. And now she knew just how deep she had cut him. It had not always been a given that he would live, he had been offered a choice and he had come back. He could have died and waited for her to come to him, but it had been her promise to wait, not his. So he had come back and when he did, she had left.

"What do you want me to say, Harry?" she asked in a whisper. Harry looked at her and their eyes meet for the first time since Harry had sat down. "Do you want to hear my excuses, because that is all I have for you?" Harry just continued to stare at her. Ginny took a deep breath and started speaking.

"Every day, I visited you, everyday for five plus years. You're right; I knew you were still in there when you were in the coma. I felt it each time you sent me your love. 9 times, in the first 3 1/2 years you did that. 6 of them I was already at your side, the other 3 I rushed to you, thinking this was it. This time you would really wake. And it helped me, but it was as much curse as blessing. Each time that it happened, and you didn't really wake, the despair afterwards was even worse. And then, there was nothing for over a year.

"And I was weak. I woke one day and I just couldn't go see you lying there like that, and there was no one around that day to give me the strength to go on. And the next day the guilt was so bad that I had given up on you, and that was the day you were aware, that was the day where you sent me your love and it didn't help. It didn't help because I couldn't forgive myself for giving up on you, and after that it only got worse.

"Then one day after not going to see you for almost a year, I went for a walk and I wound up at an orphanage. There was this little girl there and she looked at me with the most amazing green eyes, just like someone else with stunning green eyes had once looked at me. Her eyes were filled with hope and love and need. She was 3 years old, her parents had been killed by one of the Death Eaters that had escaped capture during the war, and there was no other family to take her. And she looked at me and she called me "Muma." It seems I looked like her birth mother. I couldn't leave her, so I adopted her. It wasn't easy because I was single, but she was getting older and the older a child is the harder it is to find someone to take them, so finally my persistence paid off."

"My guilt for giving up on you still consumed me, but she gave me a glimmer of hope and made life bearable again. I still couldn't go back and ask your forgiveness because I couldn't forgive myself but I had one candle to light the dark of my life.

"Then one day we were at the park and I lost track off Stephanie. I had thought I knew fear from all the times I had come close to losing you, but to be honest it didn't compare to the fear of thinking I had lost my child. I searched frantically for her, looking everywhere. I was just about to go to the Ministry to report her as missing when a man came walking over the hill carrying her. She had wandered off to the far side of the park and he had found her. He managed to get out of her where she had started the day playing and had brought her back looking for her, Mum.

"After I had recovered my senses from losing my daughter, he asked me to dinner. I was so grateful I accepted without realizing it. After that, we became friends. I saw more and more of him. He loved Stephanie like she was his own, and I loved him for it. We grew closer and my guilt over you grew worse. Eventually, I convinced myself that even if you came back you would never forgive me anyways. Geoffrey was a good man. I loved him; at first because he loved Stephanie, and then I just loved him. Eventually we started to date and he proposed. He knew about you, that you were first and there was part of me that would never be his, but he was willing to take what I gave. I wanted Stephanie to have a father; so I accepted."

"I'm not blaming Stephanie for what I did; I had already broken my promise to you at that point. I felt that any more guilt I might suffer shouldn't be reason for her to suffer life without a father.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I'm sorry I gave up on you. I'm sorry I left you. We may not have been married according to law but we were in our hearts and I left you before death took you. I'm not looking for forgiveness. I only want you to know I'm sorry and that I will spend every day that I have left to live telling you that."

Harry sat for a moment, contemplating what she had said before replying. "Why didn't you come see me when I woke up? Why didn't you tell me yourself? Didn't you owe me that?"

"Because despite everything, part of me knew that there was the slimmest chance you would take me back. And if you had, I would have left Geoffrey in an instant. I couldn't take that chance. I couldn't break a second vow of 'Until death do us part'. I couldn't to that to him, Stephanie, myself… or you," she finished in a whisper.

"How did he die?"

"He was an Auror, Harry. Despite how long Voldemort has been gone, there are still those who try to carry on in his name," Ginny answered. They both fell silent for quite some time, listening to the sounds of the cool fall night, as the fire continued to send embers into the darkness that surrounded them.

Harry was just about to Apparate to his home when there was a flash of light next to Ginny that sent her diving to the side. A bolt of blue light shot from Harry's palm and coiled itself around the phoenix dragging it to the ground with the weight of the magic it contained. Harry scrambled to his feet rushing to get between the bird and Ginny as it cried out in pain. As he reached the fallen creature he recognized it as Fawkes. Harry quickly released the bird from the coils, sending a second spell at it that helped the creature regain its senses; he bent and lifted it from the ground.

"I'm sorry Fawkes," Harry whispered to the bird. "You scared us."

Fawkes trilled loudly in indignation and cuffed Harry on the head with a wing before holding his leg out so Harry could see the letter attached to it. Harry untied the letter and after reading the name on the envelope, he handed it to Ginny. "It's for you," he said as she stood up and dusted herself off.

Harry felt a growing sense of dread coming from Ginny as she opened the letter. A few moments later he felt her heart skip and she collapsed to the ground in a heap, the letter falling from her hands. The fear in her heart surged beyond anything Harry had ever felt from her in the entire time they had been bonded. Harry summoned the note, feeling his own heart skip a beat when he read it. Recovering quickly, he scooped Ginny up in his arms. A second later, Fawkes was left in the clearing alone. The bird flapped its wings once; extinguishing the fire before it Apparated away.

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Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	7. Chapter 7: October 2017 Continued

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

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Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

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**Broken**

**Chapter 7: October 2017 Part Two**

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"We'll get there quicker if you can walk than if I'm carrying you," Harry said to Ginny as he started up the hill to the gates of Hogwarts.

Ginny, having recovered slightly from her shock, shrugged herself out of his arms and started running with Harry dragging her by the hand up to the school and the hospital wing. As they drew close to the doors of the hospital, they found themselves in the presence of Headmistress McGonagall.

"Merlin, how on earth did you get here so quickly, Mrs. Tanner?" she asked glancing twice at Harry but not seeing through his disguise. "I was under the impression you were living somewhere in America."

"Where is she?" Ginny demanded ignoring the question.

"Madam Pomfrey is attending to her, she is in extreme shock. I don't know what her chances are. By the time Professor Snape and myself reached her, the dementors had overwhelmed her and one of them had started to perform the kiss. We only just stopped the creature from taking her soul. While we may have saved her from that horrid fate, it may be too late to save her life."

Harry barged past professor McGonagall, dragging Ginny along with him, hardly noticing the resistance as he forced open the locked doors of the hospital and marched over to the bed where Madam Pomfrey was standing over Stephanie's pale body.

Professor McGonagall, recovering from her shock that someone could simply force their way past the magic that had been sealing shut the hospital doors, hurried after them. "Now see here. I don't know who you are, but you can't just go forcing your way wherever you want to in my school," she snarled at him.

Harry ignored her. "Do you have the strength to do it?" he asked as Madam Pomfrey whirled on him.

"No," she replied gravely.

"Move aside then," he said stepping to the bed.

Madam Pomfrey removed her hand from Stephanie's bare chest and stepped out of the way. "Who are you?" she demanded as Harry placed his hand over Stephanie's heart.

"Don't you recognize your most frequent and famous patient?" he asked as he closed his eyes. "Close the door Professor, I'm sure Stephanie would prefer that no one see her like this."

Professor McGonagall's mouth flapped for a moment before she recovered and moved to close the doors again.

Harry divided his mind, and he felt the cold begin to seep up his arm as he started pulling it out of Stephanie's body into his own. The cold of the dementors worked its way into Harry's shoulder spreading into his torso and throughout the rest of his body. Finally it moved into his heart and he gave an involuntary shudder as the horrid memories of his past began to flow through his mind.

The first to come was his mother's death, followed by Sirius falling through the veil. The speed of the memories began to increase and he watched as his friends from the DA began to fall on the battlefield. Dumbledore fell to the green bolt of the Death Curse as he battled alone against more than 70 Death Eaters. The explosion of released power in his death spread across the battlefield killing everyone within 50 feet of him except for Harry, Voldemort and Ginny, who was standing in the shadow that was created when the wave of magic hit Harry.

Next came that day in the hospital when he forced Hermione to tell him the truth as to why Ginny would not come see him. Last to come were the nightmares that his mind had fabricated since waking from the coma 9 years ago. Nightmares of Ginny telling him she didn't love him, had never loved him, that everything they had had together was a lie. His body now shook on a regular basis as the poison that had been left in Stephanie's soul tried to drag him under.

Harry countered with everything he knew to be true. Every good memory of Ron and Hermione ran through his mind. Visits to Hagrid's for tea, the day he first kissed Ginny. The first surge of emotion to reach his heart from hers after they had tied their souls flooded into him, everything that he had felt coming from Ginny's heart before they had stepped hand in hand into the final battle against Voldemort. Everything he had felt that told her she loved him while he was in the coma. Even the pain he had felt in her heart from their confrontation by the fire less than half an hour ago. Pain that told him she still loved him and in truth had never stopped. A truth he had always known even when he tried to deny it.

Harry pulled his left hand from Ginny's and placed it on Stephanie's chest just below his right hand and began to force the heat of his love for her into her frigid body. A love that had begun the day he told her who he was, love that had grown over the course of the next year as they had become friends. Each time she had visited, used his portkey to sneak away from school so he could help her with her homework, they had grown closer. He had taught her, giving her his knowledge, his skills, more secrets and his heart. Love that she had given back, telling him her stories of her adventures at the school; secrets about her and her boyfriend. The ties that would bind a surrogate father had been formed and now they welled within him, heating his body, countering the cold that came from hers.

That heat began to flow down his arm into her body. A dim red light began to glow around Harry's left hand spreading to cover her torso and slowly working its way down her legs and arms. The heat of his love spread in her; forcing the poison that had been left in her soul by the dementor out and into his. The red glow slowly moved up her neck covering her face and head and finally the heat from it seeped into her heart. Stephanie's body convulsed once as her breath sucked in, in a gasp and then she settled back onto the bed, her breathing now shallow but regular.

Harry slowly removed his trembling hands from Stephanie's chest and pulled the sheets and blankets over her. "She'll be ok now," he said quietly as he brushed a few strands of her brown hair away from her face. He started to move away from her bed when he realized that Ginny was standing behind him with her arms wrapped around his waist. Startled, he froze.

Ginny felt his fear and quickly released him. "Sorry," she mumbled casting her eyes to the floor. "I was only trying to help."

Harry stepped to the side and Ginny quickly moved to take Stephanie's hand in hers.

Harry moved away from them to the corner where Professor McGonagall was standing. "Thank you," he said to Madam Pomfrey as she handed him a block of chocolate.

"Mr. Potter, I never thought the day would come where it would be a welcome sight to see you in my hospital," she replied pulling him into a hug. Harry grinned sheepishly as she released him.

"I take it you must have Apparated her here?" Professor McGonagall remarked after a moment. Harry nodded in reply. "You must be exhausted, dual Apparition over that distance and the healing work you just performed on Miss Tanner would have taken it out of Professor Dumbledore," she commented.

"How did it happen?" Harry asked, not bothering to tell her that his power far exceeded anything Professor Dumbledore had been capable of.

"A group of fourth years snuck into the forest. Stephanie happened to be going to see Hagrid when they came tearing out with the dementors chasing them. One of them tripped and was surrounded by the dementors. Stephanie went to help her. She managed to produce a Corporeal Patronus and drive them off of the girl. Hagrid heard her screaming for help as she pushed the dementors away. He grabbed the other girl and raced to get help. You know the rest."

"Since when are there dementors in the forest?"

"They've been there since the final battle. The Ministry has slowly been tracking them down and removing them. The Aurors are on the grounds right now following the trail before it gets old," Professor McGonagall replied.

Harry pulled a coin out of his pocket. "You know where Ginny lives?" he asked handing it to her.

"Yes," she said taking the coin from him with a puzzled look.

"Only the Headmaster or Mistress of Hogwarts can make a portkey that will allow me through the wards. I need my wand if I'm going to destroy dementors. It will save a lot of time if I don't have to run halfway to Hogsmeade to Apparate home."

Professor McGonagall smirked at him pulling out her wand she waved it over the coin. "Portus!" she said and then handed it to Harry. "Just tap it when you're ready to return," she said before he disappeared from sight.

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Ginny sat stroking her daughter's hair. It had been close to 8 hours since Harry had saved her life, and now the first dim rays of the morning sun were starting to come in the windows of the hospital. Stephanie's eyes blinked open and she slowly turned to see who was holding her hand.

"Mum?" she asked her voice little more than a whisper.

"I'm here, baby," she answered.

Despite her condition, Stephanie's face clouded. "I hate that name."

"Tough," Ginny answered. "Here, eat some chocolate, it will help you get your strength back." Stephanie took the chocolate and slowly nibbled on it for a few minutes. As it filled her stomach, her face gained a little color.

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"I could swear that I felt Harry a little while ago. It was almost like he was inside me."

"I'm sure he'll be back before too long, sweetie. You can talk to him then, for now just rest."

Stephanie closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Do you love me?" she whispered.

"Of course I love you," Ginny gasped. "Why would you ask  
me that?"

"Because you didn't really love dad, and the dementors made me afraid that you don't really love me," she replied her voice trembling with fear.

Ginny closed her eyes tightly before replying. "Baby, love comes in many forms. I loved dad, but not like he deserved to be loved, he was not my first choice. He knew that and he accepted that. I don't know why he did and I certainly didn't deserve him. You, however, are my first choice, and you always will be."

"Harry is your first choice, Mum," Stephanie replied.

"Not anymore, Stephanie," Ginny answered.

"He should be."

Ginny smiled at her daughter's stubbornness. "For a long time I was his first and only choice, Stephanie. That is likely gone forever, even if it's not, I am no longer his first choice either," Ginny replied.

Stephanie looked at her mother very confused. "Then why do you stay at the lodge if he has found someone else?"

"I've told you before, that I'm not at the lodge in hopes that he'll forgive me. I'm there to say I'm sorry, Stephanie."

"That still doesn't explain what you mean by his first choice."

Ginny smiled at her before replying. "He hasn't found someone for a wife, Stephanie. He has found a daughter."

"What?" Stephanie gasped. "He never said anything to me. Who is she?"

It was all Ginny could do not to laugh. "You, Stephanie," she finally replied. Stephanie's eyes went wide in surprise. "I know you have already had two fathers in your life, and you don't ever have to think of Harry as your father if you choose not to. But that has little bearing on what he feels, and he loves you like you are his own. I see it in his eyes, and feel it in his heart. I've told you all of the history between Harry and myself. You know every pain that I've caused him. He taught you the Patronus Charm, has he told you what he sees when he is near dementors?"

"He told me he sees Voldemort murdering his mother," Stephanie replied softly.

"He saved your life tonight, and he relieved every horrid memory of his own life to do it, Stephanie. He did it without the slightest hesitation or concern for his own well-being. He would do that for almost anyone, but given the choice to save your life or someone else's, he would save you. You are the lone light that burns in his life right now."

Stephanie settled back into her pillows trying to process what Ginny had told her. "Am I the light that burns in your life, Mum?" she asked as she turned to face her mother.

Ginny smiled and took her daughters hand. "Stephanie, you know what I did to Harry, you know the pain I caused him and what it has caused me. Know this, if the only way I could have you in my life was to do everything the same again, I would. You are the candle that lights my life Stephanie. Without you, I am sure I would die."

Stephanie pulled Ginny up onto the bed with her. "Hold me, Mum," she whispered. Ginny wrapped her in her arms and held her tightly for a few minutes before releasing her and moving back to the chair.

"Can I come home for a few days, Mum?" Stephanie asked as Ginny's hand slipped into hers again. "I would rather have you take care of me than sit here with that grouchy old nurse."

"I don't have any of the potions you're going to need, or any way to get you to help if something goes wrong, Stephanie."

"She can stay at my place. I have everything she might need," Harry said quietly from the corner.

Stephanie's head snapped in his direction in surprise. "How long have you been there?" she demanded.

"He has only been here long enough to hear you ask to come home," Ginny answered for him. "You're going to take care of her?" she asked turning her attention to Harry.

"No, we are. There are plenty of rooms. You can stay if you want or I'll give you a portkey so you can get from the lodge to the house and back again."

"If she's there, I want to be with her. You're sure about me staying?" Ginny asked fixing her eyes on his.

"I'll go make the arrangements with Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomphrey," Harry answered and then turned to walk away.

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Harry stepped onto the three season porch and sat down in the chair furthest away from Ginny.

"She's sleeping again," he remarked after a few minutes of silence.

"She is twisting you around her finger. It's time she went back to school," Ginny replied quietly.

"I know, I told her she was going back tomorrow whether she liked it or not." Silence filled the air again and Harry stared out at the setting sun, blinking at the brightness of it.

"I'm going to miss her," he whispered.

"I know," Ginny answered. "You can't hide anything from me or did you forget?"

"It's impossible to forget. I've tried; believe me, I've tried," Harry retorted as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Do you want to forget?" Ginny asked.

"If you could go back, to the second day you didn't come to the hospital. If you could choose to come see me and have everything turn out the way we dreamed it would, but you would lose her. Would you come see me or would you stay away?"

Ginny turned away from him before speaking. "You know the answer to that question already, Harry," she said.

"Tell me anyways."

Ginny turned back to Harry and fixed her eyes on his. "I would leave you again, Harry," she whispered.

Harry didn't reply for a while, instead he started playing with the chess pieces on the board in front of him. After a short time he stood up and headed for the door to the house stopping when he got there.

"It must get pretty cramped in that apartment when you're both there," he remarked.

"Yes, it does but I can't afford anything more."

"She's welcome to stay here next summer; you can visit any time you want. You are welcome to stay if you don't want to be away from her that much," Harry answered before he disappeared into the house.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	8. Chapter 8: august 2018

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 8: August 2018**

* * *

Harry stepped onto the porch and set a cup of tea down on the table for Stephanie before taking the seat across from her. Sipping from his own mug of coffee, he turned to watch the rising sun. The light from the first rays of the day reflected in flaming golds and reds off the undersides of the few clouds on the horizon.

"Thank you," Stephanie said reaching for the cup.

"You're welcome."

The two of them sat there in silence, the only noise, the scratch of her quill as it moved purposefully across the parchment. Every so often there was a pause as she gathered her thoughts for the next sentence. Harry alternated his attention between the sunrise and Stephanie. Taking note of her precise script as she methodically worked her way through one of her summer essays. He smiled to himself. She was like Hermione in her attention to detail and the desire to do things well, but more like her mother in that she put off doing it until the last moment.

"You should have done that at the beginning of the summer," he said to her.

"Phhssshh," she replied, brushing him off.

"What subject is that one?" Harry asked.

"Defense," she answered without looking up.

"What is the subject of the essay?"

"Can you believe the after-effects of a dementor attack? Ranging from a simple brush with one to nearly having your soul sucked out. 2 entire scrolls that slimy git wants," she grumbled.

"Well you should be able to manage that without much trouble," Harry answered.

"No one but Snape assigned more than one scroll," she retorted, irritably shoving her quill into the inkwell and sitting back in the chair.

"You were supposed to make breakfast this morning," Harry said as his stomach grumbled.

Stephanie pouted at him. Harry braced himself for the onslaught. "But I have a whole roll left to do for Snape," she whined. "And then I have a roll for Flitwick. I've got something like 30 wand movements to practice before the end of the day and you promised to work on my animagus training with me this afternoon."

"Whose fault is that?"

"If I run out of time, I'm going to have to skip the animagus training. That means you'll be sitting around all day with nothing to do."

Harry didn't answer. Already he was in trouble and he knew it. Stephanie stood up and walked over behind Harry and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Besides, you do a much better job than me," she whispered in his ear.

"I'm not going to miss you when you're gone, you know," Harry replied reaching up with his hand and placing it on the back of her head returning her hug.

Stephanie kissed his cheek and pulled away from him returning to sit in her chair. Harry stood up and started back to the house. "French toast?" he asked.

"And bacon," she replied picking up her quill again.

Harry shook his head muttering under his breath as the screen door slammed shut behind him. Stepping into the kitchen he pulled the eggs and bacon out of the fridge. Setting a pan on the stove, he set the bacon to cooking and then started mixing the batter for the French toast.

Ginny stumbled into the kitchen as he was pulling the first pieces of toast off of the griddle. Looking around at the mess she shook her head and grabbed a mug for her tea before sitting down at the breakfast bar. Harry reached into the cupboard and handed her the honey.

"Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," Harry answered.

The two of them sat in the comfortable silence that had developed over the summer with the three of them in the house. It had begun when Stephanie and Ginny had stayed at the house last fall after the dementors had attacked Stephanie.

Neither Harry nor Ginny had mentioned what had happened in the clearing by the fire between them before they had rushed off to England and Hogwarts castle. But a dam had been broken that day that allowed Harry to speak with her and have her in his presence. The overwhelming pain that had come from him for so long had slowed over the time Stephanie recuperated, and by the time she had returned for the summer holiday he would actually acknowledge Ginny when he saw her at the lodge. Ginny didn't know exactly what to call the change in the emotion's she felt coming from Harry. She guessed the best word might be acceptance.

Ginny had expected him to take back the invitation for Stephanie to stay at his place over the summer, especially if it meant that she would be in his house also. 10 days while Stephanie had been sick was one thing, the whole summer was another. But the week before the term was over, he had stopped her and told her the invitation was still open and to just let him know what she was going to do.

"Stephanie was supposed to cook today," Ginny finally said when he set a plate in front of her.

"She has too much homework to do," Harry answered picking up a tray with his and Stephanie's plates on it.

"Yet she will have time to play this afternoon," Ginny remarked. "You spoil her. Do you know how to put your foot down?" she asked.

Harry set the tray down and pulled his plate off it. "I'll be back in a minute," he said heading for the door with Stephanie's breakfast. He returned quickly and sat down at the breakfast bar with Ginny.

"What would you have me do? I'm not her father, I'm afraid she'll resent me if I try to act too much like I am."

"You're the adult, Harry. She must respect you like she respects her professors. She needs to live up to her responsibilities. It's her own fault she's not done with her homework."

"So what do I do?"

"You make sure she is done with everything she told you she had to do before you work with her on her animagus training. Then, tomorrow when she tries to get out of cooking breakfast again, you don't let her,"

"It's your turn to cook breakfast tomorrow," Harry pointed out.

"I'll play the bad guy this time and tell her that plans have changed," Ginny answered.

"I guess I come out ahead on both counts then," Harry remarked as he put his plate in the dishwasher.

"How's that?" Ginny asked.

"Well," Harry answered as he headed out the door, "You get to be the bad guy. And tomorrow,… I don't have to eat burnt bacon." The door slammed shut behind him before she could reply.

Ginny sat on the stool blinking in surprise, unable to comprehend that he had actually picked at her. After a few minutes she got up and started to clean the kitchen. She was due to start her shift at the lodge in a few hours and still needed to write her Mum. It was not a letter she was looking forward to composing. It would lead to questions she was not ready to answer, but she didn't know where else to turn.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	9. Chapter 9: September 2018

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 9: September 2018**

* * *

Harry waved his wand at Stephanie's trunk levitating it into the luggage compartment of the Hogwart's Express. He stepped away from the compartment, and was run into by three students, knocking him back into the train. They continued on without stopping to help or apologize.

"Oy, you three watch where you're going," Stephanie hollered at them.

"What are you going to do about it?" one of them retorted as they turned around to face her. The student's face contorted into a mixture of disgust and fear as he noticed the Head Girl badge on Stephanie's worn robes.

"We could start with 10 points off for being rude, Malfoy." Stephanie replied.

The boy scowled at her but didn't say anything.

"Apologize," she ordered.

They boy looked over at Harry and mumbled an apology.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that," Stephanie said.

The boy looked at Harry again. "I should have been paying attention to where I was going. I'm sorry for running into you," he grumbled.

Harry nodded in reply.

"Now get on the train. And it'll be 50 points, each, if you cause any more problems today," Stephanie said. The three boys turned and climbed onto the train.

"Looks like McGonagall took pity on the charity case this year." Harry heard the boy say as he disappeared from sight.

Harry pulled Stephanie into his arms as the scowl came across her face.

"Why are people like that?" she asked settling into him.

"His father is Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"That explains a lot," Harry said. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and pushed away from her.

"I thought you bought new robes, why aren't you wearing them?"

Stephanie scowled and looked down at the ground. "I found a letter from Mum to Grandma when she was at work one day. She was asking her for help paying for tuition this year. I gave Mum the money I made at the lodge this summer to help pay for school so she didn't have to ask for help. When we got done with everything else, there wasn't enough left to buy new robes, so I got these at the second hand shop."

Harry pulled her back tight against his chest. "You're a wonderful, beautiful girl Stephanie," he whispered. "Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially little gits like Malfoy."

The whistle for the train blew and a cloud of steam billowed from the engine as the wheels on the train started to turn. Stephanie crushed Harry in her arms. "Thanks, Harry," she said.

"Get," Harry said shoving her onto the train as it picked up a little speed. "Say hello to David for me," he called to her, grinning as she blushed from his teasing. With a last wave his direction, she climbed up the stairs and into the train.

"Who was that?" David asked as he grabbed hold of her from behind.

Stephanie let out a yelp of surprise and settled back against him. "Nice to see you too," she replied.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"A friend, David, my mother had to work. So he came to see me off."

"Does he have a name?"

"James, James Black," she replied, pulling him by the hand to the front of the train for the prefects meeting.

Harry watched the train pull out of sight, closed his eyes and sighed to himself before disapparating back to his house. Apparating into his kitchen, he looking around to see the mess from breakfast had been cleaned up already. He headed down the hall to the room Stephanie had stayed in for the summer, peeking inside to see if she had left anything behind. Finding nothing he looked down the hall to the room Ginny had used. Seeing the door open he walked down and peered into it. It had the look of being just cleaned and the feel of having been vacated. There was an envelope on the bed. Harry walked over and picked it up. Seeing his name on it he tore it open and pulled out the note inside of it. There were only two words written on it.

_Thank you._

Harry put the note back in the envelope and tucked it into his pocket. He turned and walked out of the room back to the kitchen. Sitting down in a chair he leaned with his elbows on the table and pressed his palms into his eyes. Sighing heavily he sat there trying to figure out what to do next. His house, even before Stephanie and Ginny had stayed with him, had always felt warm. It had been home. But now, it felt cold and empty.

_What are you doing, Potter?_ he silently asked himself.

* * *

Harry sat down on the stool next to Bill in the small office at the lodge. Staring out the window at the cold grey water of the lake being whipped into white caps by the fridgid north wind blowing out of Canada he sighed heavily.

Bill finished making entries into the computer before he turned to look at him. "Stephanie made the train ok?" he asked.

"Yep," Harry replied with a sad smile.

"Going to be rough around here for the next few weeks," Bill remarked, draining the last of the coke from the can he was drinking. "She's the best housekeeper we've had in a long time."

"Find anyone to replace her yet?" Harry asked.

"I found another housekeeper, but you don't replace workers like that," Bill answered him turning back to the computer to make some more entries.

"Her mother needs a raise," Harry said.

Bill turned back to him. "I already pay her more than anyone besides yourself. Her last raise, she deserved it, but it was more than I could really afford. I'm not saying she isn't worth even more, but the funds just won't allow it, James."

Harry stood up and moved to the door. Stopping at the threshold, he turned back to face Bill. "You can if I make less," he said.

Bill looked up at him. "How much less?" he asked after a moment.

"Well I guess you have to give me minimum wage, you can give her the rest," he replied.

Bill nodded at him. "You had a good summer with them there then?" he asked.

"It's quiet without her in the house," Harry replied.

"Without which one, in the house, James?" Bill asked turning to look through a sheaf of papers, like Harry's answer didn't really matter to him. When Harry didn't reply, Bill turned back to him and handed him a folded piece of paper.

Harry looked at him quizzically.

"The new brochure, what do you think of it?" Bill asked.

Harry opened it up and gave it an uninterested glance. "Looks good," he remarked handing it back to Bill before turning to leave.

Bill tossed the brochure back into the box with the others. Smiling slightly to himself, he set to work adjusting the payroll for the week.

* * *

Ginny looked at her check and blinked. Rubbing her eyes, she took another look and hurried over to the office. Pausing to see if Bill was in she knocked on the door before entering.

Bill glanced up at her and smiled. "What can I do for you, Ginny?"

"There seems to be a problem with my check," Ginny said handing it to him.

A surprised expression came over Bill's face. "Don't tell me I shorted you?" he asked looking at it briefly.

"No," Ginny stammered quickly in reply. "It seems that you over-paid me."

Bill looked at the check again giving it a more thorough review before he handed it back to her. "Nope, everything seems to be in order."

Ginny reached slowly to take it back from him.

"Did I forget to tell you, you got a raise?" he asked.

Ginny blinked in surprise. "Erm… Yes, you must have."

"Oh, well consider yourself told then," he replied smiling at her.

"M… May I ask why?" she stammered.

Bill glanced out the window of the office and nodded his head. Ginny leaned forward to look out the window and saw Harry walking by, talking with one of the guests while showing them to their cabin.

"Someone thought I was paying him too much and insisted on a pay cut. I decide to give the money to you."

Ginny turned back to Bill and a look of understanding came over her face. "Oh," she managed to get out.

"Stephanie was telling me about some dance this year at school. Was she able to get a dress for it?" he asked.

Ginny tucked the check into her pocket. "She will now," she answered with a smile full of gratitude. "I guess I'll be going now," she said backing up a step. "Thank you, Bill."

"Ginny," he called as she turned to go.

"Yes?" she asked turning her head to look at him.

"I would just let it go," he said.

Ginny waited a second before replying, "Thank you, Bill," she said over her shoulder as she stepped out of the office.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	10. Chapter 10: December 2018

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 10: December 2018**

* * *

"Take your contacts out," Stephanie demanded when Harry came into the kitchen and sat down next to her.

"I can't see without them," Harry replied, piling hash browns followed by eggs and bacon onto his plate. He reached across the table for the pitcher of orange juice and ended up getting his hand smacked. "What was that for?" he snapped angrily.

"You reached in front of my face and I was about to bite your arm. Try asking and I'll pass it to you," Stephanie retorted.

Ginny snorted but then managed to quell the rest of her laughter when Harry glared at her.

"Don't get angry with Mum because you have poor table manners, Harry," Stephanie said.

Harry turned his attention from Ginny back to Stephanie. "May I have the orange juice, Mum?" he asked, mocking her.

"Only if you take your contacts out," she retorted.

"I told you. I can't see without them," Harry replied.

Stephanie sighed to herself. "For the love of Merlin you are difficult," she grumbled.

"Why do you want me to take them out anyways?" Harry asked.

"Because you look better with green eyes than you do with brown," she replied handing him the orange juice.

"Have you been practicing your wandless magic?" Harry asked as he filled his glass.

"Some," she answered sheepishly.

Harry looked at her and over to Ginny for a second. She seemed to be keen to stay out of the discussion. She knew Harry had not really been angry with her for laughing at him earlier, but what he could feel coming from her told him she was afraid to push her luck. Harry took a bite of bacon and chewed it thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'll take them out if you can summon my glasses without your wand," he commented without looking at Stephanie.

Ginny looked across the table at Stephanie a mixture of surprise and pride on her face; it would be no small feat to accomplish the task. She knew from what she could feel coming from Harry that while he believed her to be capable of performing the task, he didn't expect to lose the bet. Harry continued to eat his breakfast not paying any attention to the looks going back and forth between mother and daughter. If he had, he might have been more concerned.

"You'll go without them when we go shopping for my dress later today?" Stephanie asked.

Ginny felt a wave of fear, that Stephanie had pushed to far, well in her heart and a surge of nervousness come from Harry. "Stephanie Renee," she snapped quickly at her daughter.

"No, it's ok," Harry jumped in quickly, reaching to place his hand on Ginny's. "It's ok," he said again, giving her hand a squeeze at her searching look.

Ginny felt a wave of emotions surge through her. The last time there had been physical contact between them was when she had hugged him around the waist while he performed the healing charms on Stephanie after the dementor attack over a year ago.

When he had realized she was holding him, fear had surged from him into her. Now she could actually feel comfort coming from him. She squeezed his hand in return trying to send her own sense of comfort back to him. Harry let her hand go, and for an instant she thought she felt reluctance on his part to do so.

Harry turned his eyes back to Stephanie. "Yes, if you can do it. I'll go without my contacts all day," he said to her.

Stephanie grinned.

"It seems like a pretty one sided bet to me," Ginny remarked. "What does Harry get if you try and fail?"

"I think it's punishment enough that I won't get to see his eyes," Stephanie retorted glaring at her mother.

Ginny had to admit she agreed with Stephanie, and she knew her heart was giving that information away to Harry at that very second.

"Dinner," Harry said. "She has to cook and clean."

Stephanie glared at Ginny again before settling her eyes on Harry. "Fine," she said, "it's a bet."

"Whenever you're ready then," he said, returning his attention to finishing his breakfast.

Stephanie closed her eyes and cleared her mind. Running through the relaxation techniques he had started teaching her that past summer. She focused in on her core, trying to feel the magic that resided in the center of her being. Stephanie felt the heat welling deep in the pit of her stomach just in front of her spine. Willing it up her chest to her shoulder and then forcing it down her arm into her fingers.

Harry and Ginny both watched quietly as Stephanie's face contorted with the effort and a thin sheen of sweat formed on her forehead.

Stephanine raised her right hand in the direction of the stairs that led to Harry's room. "Accio Harry's Glasses!" she commanded as she focused in on the image of them sitting on his bedstand.

Harry and Ginny both turned to look at the stairs just in time to see his glasses flying through the air as they zipped across the room into Stephanie's waiting hand. Stephanie set the glasses triumphantly on the table next to Harry, propped her chin on her hands and looked at him expectantly.

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the case for his contacts. He popped them out and slid his glasses onto his nose. With a smile he reached one hand to Ginny's and the other to Stephanie's. "Since I don't feel like cooking, I guess that means I'm buying us dinner tonight," he said before apparating all of them to alley behind the dress shop.

* * *

Harry stepped onto the porch of the small two-story cottage in Stury Scotland. Taking a deep breath he knocked on the door and waited nervously for someone to answer. Shortly he heard a voice calling from inside and then the door opened.

"Bloody Hell, Harry?!" Seamus Finnigan asked after doing a double take.

"Pardon?" Harry asked turning to look behind him as if he expected someone else to be there. Finding no one he turned back to Seamus and held his hand out. "Don't know who Harry is, but I'm James Black. I'm here to collect your son for his little trip to see Stephanie."

Seamus blinked and took Harry's hand in his. "Sorry about that, you look like someone I used to know." Shaking his head again he hollered up the stairs. "David, Mr. Black is here, hurry up."

Harry heard a crash followed by a couple of thumps and then saw a trunk floating down the hall followed by a tall blond haired boy. He had broad shoulders and a confident air about him as he descended down the stairs into the entry of the house

Harry looked into the young man's blue eyes, reaching out with his legilimency skills to gently touch his mind. He found a sense of nervous excitement building in David, along with a burning curiosity to know more about the man who had come to collect him.

David stopped in front of Harry and held his hand out to him. "Nice to meet you Mr. Black," he said.

"Likewise," Harry replied shaking the boy's hand. "Stephanie's told me a lot about you, David. Seems she is quite taken with you. And you can call me James."

Letting go of his hand, David nodded at him. "Seems I'm at a disadvantage then as Stephanie, other than your name, hasn't told me much of anything about you," he replied.

"She's not supposed to," Harry replied in an even voice, effectively ending David's attempt to find out more about him.

"Do you have to leave right away, or can we offer you something, James?" Seamus asked breaking back into the conversation.

Harry shook his head. "No, Mr. Finnigan, I'm afraid we have a rather long day ahead of us and will need to be heading out."

"Ok then, you said goodbye to your Mother?" he asked his son.

David nodded in reply. "Just before I came down."

"Good, she'd have my head and yours if you didn't. Have fun, and we'll see you and Stephanie at Kings' Cross on the third for the trip back to Hogwarts," Seamus said giving his son a hug. He then turned to Harry. "You have my permission to flay him if he is any trouble."

Harry grinned at him. "I'll remember that," he replied stepping out the door. "You need any help with that trunk, David?"

"Nope," he replied, magicing it out the door. "It's nice being of age." The two of them walked down the drive in silence. Harry led him down the road a short distance and then turned into the woods.

"I hope were not planning on walking all the way to America," David remarked after a minute. Harry didn't reply, but stopped a short while afterwards. David watched him moving his hands up near his face for a minute before Harry spoke.

"No, we'll be apparating," Harry finally answered after a few more moments without turning around.

"That's going to be a fair trick seeing as I have never been there. Not to mention the distance is a little beyond my abilities, Mr. Black," David replied.

"Never underestimate yourself, David. You have more strength and power than you know. And I told you to call me James."

"All right then, James, assuming I have the power to apparate over that distance, I still have never been where we are going."

Harry turned around to face David, walked over next to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. Taking the handle of David's trunk in his other hand he looked him in the eye before speaking again. David's eyes grew wide as he took in the scar on Harry's forehead and the emerald green eyes behind the glasses he was now wearing.

"You may as well call me Harry, David. I don't like having Stephanie angry with me," he said and with a pop the two of them were gone.

* * *

Ginny stepped onto the porch and stood next to Harry as he watched the sun setting on the third day of the New Year.

"I wish she could have stayed longer," he commented.

"She is almost grown. It won't be long before she starts to make a life of her own. Even though, to me, she will always be the little girl who looked at me with desperate eyes and called me 'Muma,' she will not be a child the next time I see her. She may never truly come back again," Ginny replied.

Harry could feel an overwhelming sense of happiness coming from Ginny. It was nearly equaled by the sadness she was feeling at the same time. "I'm sorry I didn't wake soon enough to raise her with you," he answered in a whisper.

Ginny turned her head to look at him in surprise. She had felt the sadness radiating from his heart into hers before she had stepped onto the deck. She hadn't know what was causing it and now she realized it was for the life he had lost, the life she had taken from him. She felt her heart breaking as a single tear slid down his cheek.

"I… I better get my things packed to go back to my apartment," she said quietly after a few seconds. Ginny hesitated a few moments longer. She desperately wanted to touch his hand, wipe the tear from his cheek, anything to comfort him but she didn't think he would allow it. As she stepped back from him, he spoke without turning to look at her.

"You were right," he said.

Ginny stopped. "Sorry?" she asked.

"To stay away once I woke. To make sure you kept your vow to Stephanie, yourself … and Geoffrey," he whispered.

Ginny stood there a few steps back and to his side staring at his profile. She didn't know what to make of his words or the torrent of emotions coming from him.

Harry turned around to face her, his green eyes piercing into hers. His hand waved over his face and his scar appeared on his forehead. Ginny watched him as he lifted his shirt over his head leaving him standing there bare-chested in the cold of the three-season porch.

"Give me your hand," he said to her.

Ginny hesitated for a second or two and then keeping her eyes locked with his she tentatively stepped close enough that he could take her wrist in his hand. Lifting her arm, Harry placed her palm on his chest over his heart. Ginny gasped at the flood of emotions that rushed into her through the contact of their bare skin. The intensity of the bond was dictated by proximity and when they touched, if they allowed it, their souls would move into each others.

"What do you feel, Ginevra?" he asked her.

Ginny's eyes grew wide at the sound of her name coming from his lips. It was only the second time he had used it since she had come to the lodge and the first since the night by the fire over a year ago. She tried, but couldn't prevent a flicker of hope from rising in her heart. Hope for what, she wasn't even sure, but anything would be welcome.

"I feel sorrow, pain, regret," she said quietly pausing for a moment before continuing, "compassion, need, want, hope, lust… love," she whispered softly.

Harry continued to stare at her, his eyes smoldering with intensity, threatening to drown her in their bottomless green depths. He had not flinched or blushed at any of the emotions she had named and now she could see the need welling within him. Tears began to fall from her eyes as another feeling came to her heart from his.

"Forgiveness," she breathed.

"Once, I knew a girl. She was amazing, an angel of mercy that saved me from myself. I put her up on a pedestal where angels belong and I believed she was mine. But she was only human, and she fell from the pedestal I placed her on. And I hated her for it.

"But I'm tired, Ginevra. I'm tired of the pain and the loss. I'm tired of knowing that she suffers. Suffers more than me because of the anger I hold inside and feed to her. The truth is I love her still, more than life itself. I never stopped, and I never will.

"I forgive you, Ginny. And if you can believe that, stay. Stay tonight and wake in my arms tomorrow and every day for the rest of my life. And when I die, know that I will be waiting for you to join me. Know that if you go before me that I will come to you. I will always come to you, Ginny. "Stay," he finished.

Ginny stood in front of Harry hardly daring to breath. Not even in her dreams had she been allowed the fantasy that was living, breathing, in reality before her eyes. Mercy and forgiveness were being offered to her. Hope where there had been none blossomed in her heart. She slowly reached her hand to her chest and began to unbutton her blouse, letting it fall to the floor around her feet. Her fingers unclasped her bra and it joined her blouse. Taking Harry's hand in hers she placed his palm on her breast over her heart.

"What do you feel?" she asked in a whisper.

"Love," he replied, pulling her to his chest. Harry opened his soul to her and at the first brushing of it against hers, Ginny's body shuddered slightly.

Her soul cautiously reached out and pulled his closer, _"I'm sorry,"_ it whispered to his.

_"I know,"_ Harry's replied, and moved to envelope her in the shelter of its love.

Safe in his forgiveness, Ginny moved close to him pressing her bare chest against his so she could feel his heart beating against her. They stood there for a few minutes before she pulled him by the hand from the porch into the house to the couch. With the firelight dancing across them, her hands moved to his waist and started to remove his jeans.

"Ginny, we…"

She silenced him by placing her fingers over his lips, and then finished removing his jeans, depositing them along with his boxers and socks in a pile on the chair. She then added the rest of her clothes to the pile and lay down on the couch, pulling the blanket off the back of it as she did.

"Come here," she said quietly.

Harry moved to the couch and lay down next to her. Ginny settled the blanket over them and then wrapped her arms around him cradling his head to her bare chest. Lost in their vulnerability to each other, for the first time since he had woke from the coma, true peace settled in their hearts.

"Goodnight, Love," she whispered.

"I love you, Ginevra," Harry answered.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	11. Chapter 11: June 2019

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 11: June 2019**

* * *

Ron picked up his youngest son and tossed him high into the air catching him on the way back down. "How's my little, Mikey?" he asked as the toddler howled in laughter.

"Again, Daddy," he demanded. Ron tossed him into the air again, eliciting another howl of laugher from the boy. "Again!" Ron tossed him up again.

"Ronald Weasley, you put him down right now," Mrs. Weasley shrieked at her youngest son.

Ron managed to catch the boy in his surprise and turned sheepishly to face his mother. "Mum, we're just playing," he replied. Turning his attention back to Michael he blew a raspberry on the boy's cheek.

"I just feed him, Ronald. You're going to make him sick," Hermione snapped at her husband, joining Molly's tirade.

"Now go get cleaned up, Harry will be here soon," Molly said to Ron.

"I still don't see what all the fuss is about. It's not like Harry hasn't been to the Burrow before," he grumbled.

"Ronald, it's been almost a year since we've seen him and more than two since he came to the burrow, and he is bringing someone. A female someone, I might remind you," Hermione growled at him.

Ron stopped playing with his and Hermione's youngest child and turned to look at his mother and Hermione, a nervous expression on his face. "There is that, isn't there?" he commented. The three of them looked at each other and their faces broke into broad smiles.

"He hasn't told you who she is?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"No, Molly," Hermione replied. "Like I said, we haven't seen him in close to a year now, and he hasn't mentioned a thing in any of his letters until this last one.

"Honestly, I'm surprised he's coming to Harry's graduation. He knows that Ginny will be here because Stephanie is graduating also," Ron said quietly.

"We'll just have to make sure to watch them. They will only have to be in each others presence for a few hours," Mrs. Weasley said shaking her head sadly. Hermione scowled and took her youngest son from her husband.

"Come on sweetie, let's get your nappie changed before uncle Harry gets here," she said to the child as she headed for the stairs.

"Mum, do you have any idea where Ginny has been living since Geoffrey was killed?" Ron asked.

"No, she won't tell me, and I haven't been able to get anything out of Stephanie in any of her letters either."

"Well," Ron said glancing at the stairway to make sure his wife was out of earshot, "she better steer clear of Harry. Hermione still hasn't forgiven her for making her be the one to tell him. She'll hex Ginny into next year of she does something to upset him."

"I know dear. We're all waiting for an apology for that," Mrs. Weasley replied pulling Ron into a hug.

Ron returned her hug and pulled away slightly. "It's not us she needs to apologize to, Mum, it's Harry," he replied.

"And Hermione," Molly added.

"And Hermione," Ron agreed.

"Well, we don't have to deal with it now. The graduation isn't till tomorrow, and it will only be Harry and his lady friend here today. I hope she's nice. The poor boy deserves something good in his life."

"If she's with Harry, I'm sure she'll be fine, Mum."

"Has he told you anything about her?"

"Only that she's a witch," Ron replied with a shrug.

* * *

Harry apparated with Ginny to the gate of the front garden to the Burrow. "Are you sure you're ready for this, Gin?" he asked.

Ginny squeezed his hand in hers. "Do you love me?"

"You know I do," Harry replied, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Then I have you and Stephanie. I'll be ok," she replied resting her hand on his chest for a moment.

Harry kissed her again before draping his invisibility cloak over her head. "Come on then. Let's go see who manages to recover their voice first," he said.

Harry walked slowly up to the front door of the Burrow. Taking note, as he approached, of just how little things had changed from the first time he had been there the summer before his second year at Hogwarts. The place still looked like it could fall down at any moment, and the gardens while full of recently sprouted vegetables, still had their share of weeds in them. Harry let a small smile play across his mouth as a gnome darted into its hole. Taking a deep breath he raised his hand to knock on the door.

Before he could, it was flung open and he was tackled by Ron and Hemione's 9-year-old daughter. "Uncle Harry," she shrieked as she bowled into him.

Harry grabbed her up in his arms and twirled her around. "It's good to see you too, Anna," he said before setting her back on the ground. Harry looked down into the smiling face of the red, bushy haired girl, grinning at her fondly. "You grew since the last time I saw you," he said to her.

"You haven't come to see me in almost a year," she scolded wagging her finger at him. Harry gave her a sheepish smile. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the Burrow. "Hey you lot," she yelled into the house, "he's here."

Harry braced himself as he heard the pounding of feet running through the house. Anna dropped his hand and stepped away from him. Looking up at him she gave him a naughty grin.

"I'll get you for this," he whispered. She stuck her tongue out at him and ducked behind the couch as Hermione jumped into his arms wrapped her legs around his waist and planted a chaste kiss on his lips. Harry held her around the waist and smiled back at her.

"It's good to see you too, Hermione," he said.

"Geez mate, she doesn't even greet me like that," Ron commented from the steps. Harry turned himself and Hermione so they could both see Ron. He kissed her on the cheek and she settled her head in on his shoulder.

"Well, I am better looking," Harry chided him.

"I thought since you were bringing your own girl, I was finally safe from having you steeling mine," Ron remarked as he walked across the room and stood next to them.

"I don't know, Ron," Harry commented under his breath so only the three of them could hear. "She kind of fits nicely. I might just take her yet."

"Well," Hermione huffed indignantly, unwrapping her legs from Harry's waist so he had to support all of her weight with his arms as both Harry and Ron started laughing.

"She does fit pretty well," Ron said waggling his eyebrow at the two of them.

"Ronald Weasley, if you ever want to know how well I fit again, you'll take that back. And put me down you walking hormone," she growled at Harry. Harry set her down and Ron grabbed him in a brotherly hug, which he returned briefly before pulling Hermione into their embrace.

"I've missed you two," he said quietly.

"We've missed you too, Harry," they answered together before letting him go.

"Did I hear, someone saying he was here? Harry!" Mrs. Weasley yelped when she came around the corner. She then rushed over to him, pushed Ron unceremoniously out of the way and wrapped him in her arms.

"First my wife and now my Mum," Ron grumbled. Hermione gave him a quick kiss to shut him up. And Harry caught Anna, her eyes dancing with mirth, giggling at him from behind the couch.

After nearly crushing the life out of Harry, Mrs. Weasley finally let him go. "Now, let me look at you," she said. "I see you're eating well enough, still a little on the skinny side," she remarked fussing over him. "Arthur! Harry's here," she yelled without turning around. "Honestly, where that man gets to, I'll never know," she added under her breath.

"I'm right behind you, Molly," her husband said. Mrs. Weasley jumped in surprise. While everyone in the room started laughing at her. She turned and swatted him with her dish towel. "You will be the death of me yet, Arthur Weasley," she hissed.

Arthur stepped forward and gave his wife a kiss on the top of her head before he pulled Harry to him. "How have you been, son?"

Harry returned his hug and pulled away. "I'm good. Things have been busy at the lodge and what-not. I'm just glad to be here. I've missed all of you and this place so much; I can't really even believe it."

"Well, you're certainly welcome to visit more often than every few years, Harry James," Molly scolded him. "Letters are nice, but seeing people is much better."

Harry hung his head in contriteness.

"That's enough, Molly. He's here now, lets have a good time with that," Arthur said guiding Harry over to the couch.

The five of them sat down in the living room of the Burrow. And Anna, feeling it safe to come out now that everyone was done mobbing Harry, joined them; squirming her way onto Harry's lap. They sat talking for a little while before Molly got up and brought tea and biscuits in. Finally, Hermione could take it no more.

"Erm… Harry, you said you were going to bring someone?" she asked.

Harry bit his lower lip and took a deep breath. "Right," he said. He then turned his attention to Anna for a second. "Anna, sweetheart, uncle Harry needs to talk to Grammy and Grampy and your parents for a little bit. Would you mind going to play upstairs in the nursery for a while?" Anne gave him a scowl in reply. "Please, Anna, I promise to tell you soon, but us adults need to talk alone first."

"Promise?" Anna asked.

"Promise," Harry replied. Anna slipped off of his lap and headed for the stairs.

"Ok, but I'm not happy about it," she grumbled as she disappeared from sight.

Harry turned back to the others and noticed the looks of concern that had come over their faces.

"Harry, did I say something wrong?" Hermione asked nervously.

Harry gave her a weak, but real smile. "No, Hermione, you didn't. I'm just a bit nervous about this. In fact both of us are."

"So you did bring someone then," Ron said with a grin.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"You seem more than a bit nervous, Harry. You must really like her," Hermione said.

"You could say that. In fact, I've only felt this way about one person," Harry answered quietly. Arthur, Molly, Ron and Hermione all glanced at each other, they all knew who that person was, and then turned their attention back to Harry.

"Sounds pretty serious, son," Mr. Weasley commented.

"Very," Harry replied fiddling with the ring on his finger.

Hermione gasped when she noticed it and grabbed his hand. "You're married!" she stated. The others all looked at his hand and then back to him.

"Well?" Ron demanded.

"Yes, I am," Harry replied.

Mrs. Weasley leapt out of her chair and tackled him back onto the couch in another of her hugs. "Oh, Harry, I'm so happy for you. Of course it would have been nice if you had invited us to the wedding, or even told us before you got here. I mean I have two separate rooms set up for you. But if you're married, of course you're going to want to stay in the same room."

Harry looked across the room to Ron; asking for help in getting his mum to let him go. Finding nothing but a shell-shocked best mate, he turned to Arthur, who had managed to recover enough that he pulled a still rambling Molly off of Harry. Harry cautiously met Hermione's eyes. She smiled weakly back at him.

"Hermione?" he asked softly, reaching for her hand.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.

Harry moved over and knelt on the floor in front of her. Reaching up with his hand he pulled her by the back of the head so he could whisper in her ear. "I'm sorry, Mione. I think you might understand in a few minutes. I hate to tell you this, but the surprises are not finished yet."

Hermione pulled back from him and looked questioningly into his eyes.

Harry brushed her hair back away from her face. "Hermione, you were there when I woke. You were the one to tell me the truth. You were the one who I took my anger out on. And I know you felt pain for me as I dealt with everything. You were the one who supported me and I don't know how to thank you. I have no right to ask you for anything more than you have given me already, but I have to ask one more thing."

Hermione held his hands tightly in hers. "You are my brother, Harry, ask and if it's in my power to give you, I will."

"Be happy for me, Hermione. Be happy for both of us," he said.

Hermione placed her hands on the sides of his face and looked directly into his eyes. "I am happy for you. It's just, well, I've been there for all the bad things, Harry. I would have liked it if I could have been there for something that was happy."

Harry pulled her tight to him again. "You'll get a chance, Hermione," he said quietly.

"I love you, Harry, if you're happy then I'm happy for you," she replied. "Now," she said pulling away from him, "where is she?"

"Let me go get her," Harry answered. He stood up and walked to the kitchen, going to the back door he opened it. "Gin?" he whispered.

Ginny pulled the cloak off and stood up. Taking his hand in hers, she let him lead her into the house. Harry stood in the door of the kitchen with Ginny behind him. The others looked back to where he was standing.

"Remember, Hermione, I said the surprises were not finished for the day?" he asked.

Hermione nodded in reply. Harry stepped into the room with Ginny staying behind him, hidden from sight. "Before anyone thinks it, I want to say this is not a joke… But I would like you to meet my wife," he said stepping to the side so they could see Ginny.

Four sets of eyes went wide and four mouths dropped open. Harry and Ginny stood holding hands next to each other waiting for a response of some kind. Ginny quickly darted her eyes up to see their reactions and back down again. After a few moments more she looked up at them all still just staring at the two of them.

"Please, somebody say something," she pleaded just above a whisper.

"G-Ginevra?"

"Yes, Mum."

"Y-You an-and Ha-Harry?" Mrs. Weasley stammered.

"Yes, Mum," she replied quietly.

"H-How? W-When?"

"A little less than three months ago, March 15th to be precise," Harry replied.

Hermione, recovered from her shock, stood up glaring daggers at Ginny.

Ron, Molly and Arthur all held their breath and watched her carefully. No one but Ginny had, had any clue that Harry was getting stronger. No one knew that the bond they had gave her knowledge different than what the healers were telling them. And the healers had all given up hope that Harry would wake years before he did. In fact, Ginny was the last of the family to have given up any real hope that he would wake. And she had told no one that Harry was reaching out to her. For the most part, Ginny had isolated herself from her family when she stopped going to see Harry. But the real estrangement by the family had not started then, or even when she had married, it had begun when Harry had woken from the coma and Ginny had refused to tell Harry herself, forcing Hermione to do it instead. They had been waiting for this confrontation for years and now that it was finally here, they knew it was best to stay back and let Hermione go.

"When did she find you?" Hermione demanded without looking at Harry.

"Four years ago this past March," Ginny answered quietly.

"And you have been there this whole time?"

"Yes," Ginny replied forcing herself to meet Hermione's eyes. Hermione closed her eyes tightly, her fists clinched at her sides. Turning her back on Ginny she breathed deeply trying to control herself.

"Hermione…" Harry started.

She silenced him by holding her hand up. "You've had four years to make your peace with her, Harry, and I'm glad you have. But you have to, at least, give me a few minutes."

Harry sighed to himself but didn't say anything more. He and Ginny had talked about this, and knew it had to happen. Ginny had made her bed, now she had to lie in it. All he could do was stand next to her while she did. When Hermione started to speak again, her back was still turned to Ginny and her voice was calm, too calm.

"You were my friend, the only girlfriend I have ever had. I didn't blame you when you married Geoffrey. Even though I was dieing for Harry, if he ever woke up, I was happy for you. I was your Maid of Honor. The only thing I ever asked was, when and if he ever woke up, that you tell him," Hermione stopped and whirled on Ginny. "And you made me do it," she hissed at her.

Ginny flinched, but didn't break eye contact with her. "I'm sorry, Hermione," she whispered as tears started to slide down her face.

"You're sorry?" she retorted waving her hand in the air, her voice airy and full of venom. Ron, Molly and Arthur grimaced at her tone, afraid that this might be even worse than they expected it to be. Hermione stopped for a second taking a deep breath before continuing in a slightly less hostile voice. "Sorry, do you have any idea what it was like to have to tell him that?"

"I only know what it was like for him to hear it," Ginny replied, not bothering to wipe at the tears on her face.

"Please, Hermione, she told me why she couldn't tell me herself. I know it was a horrible for both of us, but she did the right thing and she is sorry for the pain she caused us," Harry said quietly.

Hermione turned face Harry , her eyes full of hurt and anger. "How, how could it have been the right thing?" she whispered her voice cracking as she started to cry herself. "How can causing you and me that much pain have been the right thing?"

"Because it was the only way she could be sure of keeping her vows to Geoffrey," Harry replied.

Hermione looked at Harry still clearly struggling with herself. "You trust her?" she finally whispered.

"Yes."

Hermione chewed on her lower lip for a second longer before she moved to him and let him wrap her in his arms. Harry held her for a few moments before she pushed away slightly. Reaching up she placed her hands on either side of his face and pulled his forehead to her lips, kissing him gently. Harry pulled away, and leaned his forehead against hers.

"I'm happy for you, Harry," she said quietly. Harry pulled her tight again for a second before she pushed away. Turning to Ginny she opened her arms to her. Ginny moved tentatively into the embrace.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," she whispered.

"Congratulations, Ginevra," Hermione replied. The two of them broke away from each other, while Molly, Arthur and Ron collectively breathed a sigh of relief before standing up and moving to Ginny. "I'm going for a short walk before dinner," Hermione said and headed for the door.

"Mione?" Ron asked her.

"I'm fine, Love. Just keep and eye on Michael and Anna till diner for me." The door closed quietly behind her.

"Come on son," Arthur said to Ron as he headed for the stairs and the nursery. "Let's go make sure the kids are all right while your mother finishes dinner. We can all talk more later; after we have had time to deal with things."

"Sure, dad." Ron gave Ginny a quick hug and clapped Harry's shoulder before following Arthur up the stairs.

"Well, I guess I better finish dinner then," Molly said, hugging each of them before heading for the kitchen, leaving Harry and Ginny alone in the living room.

"You ok?" Harry asked Ginny after everyone had left.

"Do you still love me?"

"Yes, Ginevra Molly Potter, I still love you."

Ginny reached up with her hand and touched his cheek. "Then I'm ok," she replied.

"I think I better go after her," Harry remarked nodding in the direction that Hermione had gone.

"Actually, Love, I think I should," Ginny said as she stood up and went to the door. "Why don't you help mum with dinner," she said before closing the door behind her.

* * *

Ginny found Hermione on the far side of the pond, watching the water as it flowed into the stream and headed off into the distance. She walked over and stood next to her. Hermione looked up as she came up next to her and then turned to face her.

"Tell me why you couldn't tell him yourself," she said.

Ginny closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "Do you want the long or the short version?"

"I know all of it already; I just want to hear it from your mouth, Ginevra."

Ginny sighed and took a deep breath. "I had already been weak, Hermione. I made poor decisions, I didn't trust myself or Harry's love for me, and I gave up on him. I convinced myself he would never forgive me and I married Geoffrey. Don't mistake that I did love Geoffrey, but he was not Harry.

"When Harry woke up, I knew I couldn't go see him, because the part of me that really knew Harry, knew he could forgive me, he could take me back. If he had, I would have left Geoffrey in a second and that would have cost me Stephanie, Geoffrey, and then eventually myself and Harry.

"Harry told me once that the girl he loved died on the day he woke up from the coma. The truth is that was the day she was born again. The girl that decided to live with the choices she had made, that did not allow herself to go near temptation, is the girl that Harry loved. I would never have gone looking for Harry if Geoffrey had not died. I did love him, he was the father of my daughter, and I had vowed to stay with him till death.

"Harry and I were never legally married, but we had made those same promises to each other. I broke them. I couldn't do it again. It would have killed me. That's why I couldn't tell Harry myself. I had to make sure I kept those vows.

"Harry asked me once, if I could go back and change it. If I could go back and come to him the day after I didn't go the first time, but I would loose Stephanie, what would I do? I told him I would leave him again. I would choose Stephanie over him. Harry trusts me now because of that, and because I did what I had to, to keep my vows to Geoffrey.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm sorry I made you tell Harry that I had married someone else while he was in a coma. I'm sorry I did that to you, but if I was put in the same situation again, I would not change it."

Hermione regarded her carefully for a few moments before replying. "I knew he never stopped loving you. I also knew even when you married Geoffrey that there was part of your heart he would never have," she said to her.

"Honestly, I had a pretty good idea that you had gone to find Harry. I knew if you did find him that all it would take was regaining his trust for him to forgive you and take you back," she paused before continuing.

"It seems you've managed to do that, but so help me, Ginevra, if you hurt him again Merlin wouldn't be able to save you from me."

"I have not regained your trust?" Ginny asked quietly.

"You have Harry's trust. He has mine, so I will be happy for him and you. Do you see this necklace?" Hermione asked pulling it out of her shirt.

Ginny moved closer to it to see it better. "Harry has one too."

"It is a way for him to communicate with me no matter where he or I happen to be; no matter how far apart we are he can always reach me. It is also a portkey. It will take me directly to him, all I have to do is tap it with my wand and say his name. I have not taken it off, once, since the day he left England. Do you have any idea how many times I spent the night with him in his apartment when he first got to that lodge?"

"No," Ginny replied softly shaking her head, "I don't."

"It's almost funny in a way. I'm probably one of 5 witches on the planet who has never wanted to share Harry's bed, and yet, for the first six months he was there, I slept with him more than Ron. Holding him like a child while he cried himself to sleep. Harry is more than a brother to me. Without being in love with him, without ever having been intimate with him, I can't imagine it is possible to be closer to another adult. Strange as it may be, in many ways he is my oldest child. I picked up the pieces and put him back together as best I could after you destroyed him, Ginevra. There were holes and gaps, but he managed. He could have lived out the rest of his days at the lodge without you, or anyone else, and been in some semblance of peace. I don't think he would ever have found someone else, and to tell you the truth I had my suspicions when he told me he was bringing someone to the house. You have come back into his life and made him truly happy. I can see it, and I believe it. I just want to make sure we understand each other. I won't stand to see you hurt him again," Hermione finished

"I did not go looking for him, to win him back. I went only to say I was sorry. I was prepared to spend the rest of my days waiting until he was ready to hear it. I never hoped for what has happened. But I'm not going to apologize for Harry giving me another chance, Hermione," Ginny replied.

"I don't know how you broke through the walls he put up. But believe it or not I'm glad you have," Hermione said.

"I didn't, Stephanie did."

Hermione looked at her quizzically for a moment.

"She figured out who he was. He took her to his house and gave her the chance to know who he was or to have her knowledge of him erased. They became friends and then he adopted her without either of them realizing it. She showed him how to open his heart and risk the pain of getting it broken again. I'm sure Harry, your son Harry, not my husband, told you there was a dementor attack on Stephanie during her sixth year."

"Yes," Hermione answered.

"That day, before I found out about the attack, was the day Harry first confronted me about our past. Before then, he had spoken maybe 20 words to me in the two years I had been at the lodge. I had just finished giving him my excuses, when Fawkes brought the news of the attack on Stephanie to me.

"Harry apparated both of us to Hogwarts. When we got there, he was the one who saved Stephanie's life. She would have died otherwise. After saving her life, he went into the Forbidden Forest with the aurors and helped them to destroy the last of the Dementors that were still there from the final battle. Stephanie and I were talking in the hospital wing the next morning and she asked to come home to recuperate. I told her I didn't have any of the potions she would need or any way to get her to help if she needed it. Harry overheard us and invited both of us to stay at his house."

"The two of us were there for ten days, and all of the next summer. We were both there again this past Christmas. Harry even allowed David, Stephanie's boyfriend, to come for a few days. When they had both left for school, I went to tell him I was going back to my apartment and he asked me to stay. He asked me to marry him the next day. Obviously, I said yes."

"Harry always did jump into things," Hermione replied with a smile and a faraway look in her eyes.

"I promise you, Hermione, he will not regret his decision this time."

Hermione moved her gaze back to Ginny and held her eyes in hers for a moment before she turned and started back to the house. "We'll see, Ginevra," she said.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	12. Chapter 12: June 2019

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 11: June 2019**

* * *

"Arrrrrrhhhhh," Ginny screamed as the contraction came.

* * *

Unable to hear her voice, but fully aware of the panic in her heart, Harry bolted for the stairs and started up to her old bedroom at the Burrow. He was stopped from going any further by the binding spells that Ron, George and Fred hit him with.

"Let me out!" Harry demanded.

Fred and George held their spells on him while Ron released his. Immediately, Harry was able to break free of the binder he had put on it. The twins both staggered as more of Harry's power went into breaking the hold they had on him.

"Damn it, Harry, you need to wait!" Ron shouted at him.

"I have been waiting!"

"Not long enough!"

"16 hours isn't long enough? Something's wrong. I CAN FEEL IT. HERE!" Harry bellowed at them, his fist moving up to smack at his chest over his heart as he broke free of the spells being held on him. Fred and George were tossed backwards into the couch, knocking it over, the crash shaking the entire house.

"Damn it, Harry, don't make me stun you!" Ron shouted at him as his wand came up.

Harry started up the stairs again. "Don't even try it, Ron."

Ron's spell flew at Harry whipped around him twice and shot back at Ron. Ron dove out of the way and it carried past, hitting Fred who was just sitting up. He was tossed back against the wall and fell to the ground unconscious. George glanced at his twin and then Ron.

"Just a stunner, he'll be all right," Ron said.

Shrugging, George raised his wand towards Harry's retreating back. Ron did the same. They both hesitated when they heard Hermione's voice.

"What in the hell is going on?" she demanded from in front of Harry. Even two steps up from him he still looked her directly in the eye.

"Let me past, Hermione," Harry said quietly.

"Harry, the midwife is doing everything that can be done. I am there and the best healer on my staff is already in the room. You will just be in the way."

"Don't make me move you, Hermione," Harry replied taking another step up the stairs.

Hermione didn't back up and now she was forced to tip her head back to look at him. "You wouldn't dare."

"Have you seen what I did to Fred?"

Hermione didn't flinch. "I am not Fred, I am not George, I am not even Ron. I am your sister. And you, would not dare, to move me." Hermione and Harry continued to glare at each other, waiting for one to flinch.

"You're making things worse, Harry."

"What's wrong, Hermione," Harry pleaded with her. The determination in his eyes replaced with a wave of desperation and fear. "I can feel it. You know I can. She's weak and getting weaker."

"Of course she's weak, Harry. She's been in labor for over 16 hours."

"Exactly, it's been too long."

"Harry, this is her first child. And she is old for it to be her first. While it is not normal for labor to last this long, it is also not unheard of."

"Just let me see her, Hermione."

"Just go back downstairs and wait, Harry. You're not rational and you will only upset her right now."

Harry continued to glare at Hermione, but the raging demon that was inside him had deflated.

Hermione pulled his head down and kissed him. "Go downstairs," she said before turning and going back up the stairs to Ginny's room. She listened for just a second and then ducked in, closing the door and casting a silencing charm around it. There was no sense in locking it. Nothing she could do could keep Harry out if he decided he wanted in.

Ron and George lowered their wands and let their breath out in a slow whoosh. The two of them glanced at each other the relief evident on their faces.

"Your wife has bigger balls than a dragon," George said before turning to help Fred, who was just starting to come too.

"We should never have let Stephanie leave the house. He wouldn't lay a finger on her either," Ron replied as looked down at Fred. "You want to do it or should I?"

"Why don't you, it always works best if the reviving spell comes from the same wand the stunner did."

Ron shrugged and sent the spell at Fred. Fred groaned, his eyes blinked open and he slowly sat up. "Stupid prat," he grumbled when his eyes settled on Ron.

"How was I supposed to know he could do that?"

"You're the one who told the rest of them that the three of us could handle him."

"I never expected him to do anything," Ron replied defensively.

Just then, Stephanie, Arthur and Molly returned to the house from the short walk they had taken. The twin's wives, Susan and Katie followed them through the door. Stephanie took one look at the overturned couch, Fred still sitting on the floor, and Harry where he was still standing on the stairs staring at the closed door Hermione had disappeared behind, and huffed in exasperation.

"Harry," she snapped, while the others went to help Fred.

Harry's head whipped around to face her. "What, Steph?"

"What is the meaning of this mess? And don't tell me it's not your fault."

"Ron tried to stun me," Harry replied defensively.

"That leads me to the question of why."

"Because he was storming up the stairs like raging hippogriff," Ron and George answered before Harry could say anything.

"You're not leaving the house again, Stephanie," Fred added. "Stupid git has no problems knocking us around, but we all know he won't even breathe hard in your direction."

"I happen to be much prettier than you, Fred," Stephanie shot at him before walking over and taking Harry's hand in hers. "Come on, Harry, let's go outside for a while."

Fred glared at their retreating backs and grumbled, "Well, as long as she takes him with, I guess she can leave. And I'm plenty good looking, he hollered as the door closed behind Harry and Stephanie."

"Oy, you're nowhere near as good looking as she is," George jibbed at his twin.

"Stupid wanker, last time I checked, we were identical," Fred shot back. "If she says I'm ugly, she certainly isn't complementing you."

"Erm…" George sputtered.

"What happened?" Susan asked, rolling her eyes at her husband and brother-in-law.

Ron proceeded to explain what had happened, finishing with the description of his stunning spell whipping in circles around Harry before it flew back at him and ended up hitting Fred when he had ducked out of the way.

"What the hell kind of spell did he use anyways?" George asked.

"Language, George," Mrs. Weasley snapped at him.

"Sorry, Mum," George answered.

"Sounds like some kind of a gravity altering spell to me," Arthur Weasley answered.

"A gravity-well," Ron shook his head in disbelief. "I couldn't do that with a wand. I doubt the lot of us together could find the power to do it."

The seven of them sat there looking at each other shaking their heads in awe.

* * *

Stephanie led Harry to a bench under a large oak tree in the back garden of the Burrow and sat down with a sigh. "What did you hope to accomplish, Harry?"

"I just wanted to help her," Harry muttered.

"Hermione is already there, along with the midwife and Healer Zambini. Are you more skilled than they are?"

"I know the magic to help," Harry scowled at her.

"Yes, of course," Stephanie retorted flippantly. "How could I forget that the knowledge of Albus Dumbledore was force-fed into your mind? But it's not a matter of power or knowledge that is the issue. The question is, are you more skilled in the use of your knowledge than Hermione, Healer Zambini or the midwife?"

Harry continued to glare at her before he sighed, "No," in defeat.

Stephanie smiled up at him before pulling her wand out and slowly starting to move it up and down Harry's body. Her eyes closed and she allowed herself to float into the magic that surrounded him. After a few minutes she opened her eyes and met Harry's gaze. "Broke out of three binding curses, and formed a gravity-well to send a stunner back at its source," she said. "Without your wand, even for you, that's pretty impressive."

Harry grinned down at her. "You're even better than Hermione."

Stephanie reached out and pulled him down on the bench so he was straddled over it with his back to her. "I won't tell her you said that," she replied wrapping her arms around his chest and holding him tightly.

"Thanks," Harry snorted.

They sat there for a few moments before Stephanie spoke again. "You know, there is a way we can help Mum," she said placing the palm of her right hand over his heart. Her left hand took Harry's hands and placed them over her right, then she covered his hands with her left. Opening her heart, she let her love for Harry and Ginny flow through her body. A moment later, Harry's breath sucked in.

"Are you surprised?" Stephanie asked. "You know this is one of the side effects of pulling the dementor's poison out of my soul. Your heart had to beat for me, in me, to do it. It doesn't bind us like you and Mum, but if we're touching, and we concentrate, it's there, and it's nearly as powerful as the, Soul Mates Bond."

"I love you Steph," Harry replied quietly.

"I love you too, Harry," Stephanie answered.

Harry pressed his hands tightly against hers; closing his eyes he focused on his heart, following the ribbon like tendrils that tied him to Ginny. Stephanie gasped as the love that Harry and her mother shared flowed freely across the bond and backwashed into her. Pulling herself tighter against his back she let her love join with Harry's as, together, they reached for Ginny.

* * *

Ginny turned in a circle; confusion reigning in her mind. Hardly able to recall whom she was, and unable to determine where she was or, for that matter, how she had come to be there. All around her giant window-like screens played views of someone's life. In all of them, the one constant was the woman with long, flaming red hair.

Gradually, as she turned, she became aware that the scenes in the windows changed. That there were tens of thousands of them stretching endlessly away from her in all directions, her fogged mind began to clear and she became aware of the fact that the red haired woman in the windows was her. Each window was a scene of her life, and yet, she was vaguely aware, wasn't.

Her eyes focused on the scene in front of her and she watched as the Ginny in the window settled onto the couch next to Harry; contentedly settling into him as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Harry's other hand moved to rest on her swollen belly and she moved his hand slightly lower on her abdomen. Harry's eyes lit up and a huge smile covered his face when he felt the child kick. He was just leaning in to kiss her lips when two small children rushed into the room breaking the spell. The first child, a boy, had flaming red hair and Harry's emerald green eyes, while the second, a girl, had flowing black locks with chocolate brown eyes that simply dripped with mystery.

Shaking her head at the strange emptiness the scene left in her soul Ginny turned to her left. Her heart caught in her throat as she saw herself sitting in the front row while Stephanie came down the isle on Geoffrey's arm. She drifted closer to the window but stopped when she realized it was not David who stood at the alter waiting for Stephanie. Turning back to her right, the image in the first window had changed.

Ginny's eyes widened while she watched the image of herself in the window seductively undress and climb into bed with a naked… "Angelina Johnson," she yelped turning away from the scene. When she turned back again the image was gone; replaced instead, with a scene depicting her bedroom at the Burrow.

Hermione, the midwife, and Healer Zambini were with her. The scene blurred and now it was Ron, Fred, George, Katie, Susan, her mother and father in the living room of the Burrow. Again the image blurred and she was watching herself in the bedroom as Hermione handed a small bundle wrapped in blankets to her. Her heart swelling, Ginny drifted to the scene. Drinking in the vision in front of her, her hand came up and she reached to touch the window.

"You don't want to do that."

Ginny's heart plummeted and she froze. That voice could only mean one thing. Closing her eyes tightly she struggled to control her emotions before speaking. "Please tell me that isn't you," she said softly.

"Not the response one might have hoped for from the woman he was married to, but not unexpected."

Ginny slowly turned and spoke without looking up to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, Geoffrey. I didn't intend to hurt you."

Geoffrey reached out and placed his fingers under her chin, lifting her eyes to his. "You want to be sure before you touch the window, Gin," he said.

Confusion clouded her eyes at his words. "I don't understand."

Geoffrey smiled. "You're not dead, Gin. Each window is a different possibility. Any and everything that could have occurred in your life exists in here," he said waving his arm around at the windows. "You want to make sure you pick the right one, because that is the reality that you will go to. That window, the one you were about to touch; is the wrong one."

Ginny turned and looked at the window she had nearly touched. As she watched, Dean Thomas came in the door. Crossing the room, he took her hand in his and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.

"Touch the window, and you will go to that reality; forgetting everything you know about who you are now, except for what you need to know till you reach that life's turning point."

"Turning point?" Ginny asked glancing at him and then back to the window. Two other children had entered the room now, and they had climbed up on the bed next to her. One on either side, they snuggled in, happily gazing at their new sibling.

"The woman you see there, everything in her life is exactly the same as yours, up to the turning point, then it changes. The turning point was the moment an eleven-year-old girl found a diary in her schoolbooks. The Ginny you see there, never wrote in it. Instead, she gave the diary to Professor McGonagall; who gave it to Professor Dumbledore, who destroyed it. She was never possessed by the memory of Tom Riddle. She never let the basilisk loose from the Chamber of Secrets. She was not taken into the Chamber, where she nearly died."

"I never had to suffer those nightmares, the shame of be touched by dark magic in that manner?" Ginny asked in wonder, her eyes glued to the scene in the window.

"No," Geoffrey said.

Ginny found herself drifting towards the window again; the urge to touch it tugging incessantly on her heart, her hand started to reach for it.

"You also, were never rescued from the Chamber by Harry Potter," Geoffrey said quietly. Ginny paused. "In the final battle Harry died; taking Tom Riddle to his grave with his last breath. You and Harry never dated, never kissed even once. He never told you he loved you. You and he never bonded. You never married me. And,.. you never walked by an orphanage where a little girl with green eyes looked at you and called you 'Muma'."

Ginny recoiled from the window as if Tom Riddle had suddenly appeared directly in front of her. "Why?" she asked.

"I don't know, Gin. All I know is that you have to find him. Either you find him, pick one of the other windows, or you die. Those are your options. I can't give you any more than that."

"I can't leave him again," she whispered, fear evident in her voice.

"I know," Geoffrey replied quietly.

Ginny looked up at him and he smiled back at her. "I did love you," she said.

Geoffrey waved his hand towards one of the windows, and an image of him walking through a cemetery appeared. He moved off the path and settled on his knees next to a simple granite stone. "Things were much easier for me," he said. "My first choice simply died. I didn't have to suffer for years at her bedside waiting for her to wake."

Ginny turned from the window to see that Geoffrey had closed the distance between them. She allowed him to wrap her in his familiar embrace and hold her close for a moment before pulling away slightly. "That's why you accepted never having all of my heart."

"Yes," Geoffrey replied, his hand moving to her face where the pad of his thumb brushed across her cheek. "Tell Stephanie I love her, no matter how she chooses to think of Harry, she will always be my daughter." Ginny smiled back at him. Leaning down he gently kissed her forehead before turning and starting to walk away.

"How?" Ginny called.

Geoffrey stopped and turned to face her. "I can't tell you, Gin. I was sent to explain things to you. All I know is you don't have much time. You're not going to get years like Harry did."

Ginny glanced at the windows surrounding her before meeting his eyes across the space separating them.

"I did love you, Ginevra Potter," Geoffrey said to her.

Ginny smiled and glanced to the window where Geoffrey was kneeling beside the headstone. "What was her name?"

"Stacie," the woman who was suddenly standing next to Geoffrey answered. "Thank you for taking care of him."

Ginny blinked once, and when she opened her eyes they were both gone. She stood there in the silence, trying to decide if it had been real, and desperately willing them to come back. Just to have someone with her in the emptiness, even if they couldn't help, would be a comfort. When they didn't return, she slowly turned and began searching the windows.

The images endlessly faded and changed while Ginny turned slowly in a circle, causing her unease growing with each rotation, distorting her perception of her surroundings. She became convinced that she was in the wrong area; that the windows in this area were supposed to show only certain possibilities, that she would never find the correct window if she stayed in one spot.

Without realizing it she was walking, focusing only on the windows on her right as she moved down the hall that she now found herself in. Some rational part of her mind decided she would go to the end of the row, and then make her way back searching the other side. She moved slowly at first, with her pace quickening as the awareness of time passing became paramount in her mind. Soon she was running, slowing occasionally to look closer when the scene in a particular window showed signs of matching the life she was looking for. Coming to a stop at one, she stood before it for the longest time; convinced that she was viewing the correct life. Stepping closer, she nearly touched it before noticing the stuffed bear on the shelf in her bedroom was the wrong color. Her heart plummeted and her near mistake brought her to a panic. Intending to continue down the corridor she had been moving along, Ginny turned from the window to find that there were now two paths open to her. Spinning around to face in the direction she had come, there were now three corridors; each of them stretching beyond any distance she could determine.

Unaware of the tears that had begun to flow, she randomly picked one and started down it; running as fast as her legs would carry her. Images flew by in the windows and she became skilled at spotting the smallest difference in what she saw from what she knew was her life, the toothbrush holder on the wrong side of the sink in this scene, the picture on the mantel of Ron kissing Susan instead of Hermione in the next, the color of the drapes in her mother's kitchen.

Frantically she ran, her heart pounding in her chest and her breath coming in great gasps. Every stop she made at a window led to new corridors to search when she turned from it. Eventually her strength faded, and she was reduced to walking, her leaden legs growing heavier with each step. And then, even that was too much, leaving her back in the state she started her search; simply turning in a circle as the windows around her changed.

Her terror grew, as the images became further from what she knew her life to be. The number of turns she made grew to the thousands and the different possibilities for her life mounted into the tens of thousands and beyond. Desperation set in and a scream of anguish escaped from her lips.  
Finally, on the verge of collapse, she turned and her heart nearly stopped at the scene her eyes settled on. It was perfect. Ever person, every object, every detail was exactly as it should be. The pull to touch the window was nearly unbearable, and Ginny drifted to it, her hand slowly coming up and skimming just above the surface. Desperately she searched the scene, looking for anything that could be wrong, and her fingers moved to less than a millimeter above the window.

* * *

"Hermione," Healer Zambini said urgently. "Something's wrong."

Hermione's head snapped up from where she was helping the midwife wrap Harry and Ginny's daughter in blankets. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Healer Zambini answered, her wand starting to float over Ginny's body. She didn't give any more of a reply, instead concentrating on the incantations that would tell her what was wrong with Ginny.

Hermione blanched when she recognized the intense look of concentration on the other Healers face. She grabbed her own wand and moved to the other side of the bed where she began her own series of incantations. So focused on the task at hand, she didn't hear the cries of the newborn child begin.

"There's nothing wrong with her," Healer Zambini snarled in frustration. "This shouldn't be happening!" Her wand continued to float up and down Ginny's body, small pulses of light sprayed from the tip of it in a rainbow of colors as she attempted every reviving spell she knew. "I've lost her pulse."

The panic in Hermione's heart threatened to drag her focus under as she too attempted to get a response from Ginny. "Damn it, Ginevra, don't do this!"

"Hermione, her heart has stopped!" Healer Zambini said urgently.

"Clear!" Hermione shouted.

"Clear," Healer Zambini confirmed moving her hands away from Ginny. The electric shock shot from Hermione's wand to Ginny's chest causing her body to arch up and then relax onto the bed again. "Nothing," Healer Zambini said shaking her head at Hermione after checking for Ginny's pulse.

"Clear!" Hermione said again.

"Clear," Healer Zambini confirmed.

"I warned you, Ginevra. I told you even Merlin wouldn't be able to save you from me if you hurt him again."

"Nothing," Healer Zambini shook her head when Hermione glanced at her. "She's not breathing now," she added.

"Clear!" Hermione cried, tears starting to fall from her eyes.

"Clear," Healer Zambini confirmed.

"Don't think this is going to keep you safe from me, Ginevra. I have to die someday too, and when I do I'll find you."

Healer Zambini shook her head at Hermione's questioning look.

"Damn it, Ginevra, Breathe!" Hermione shouted at her. "Clear!"

"Hermione," Healer Zambini tried to stop her.

"Clear!"

"Hermione."

"I SAID CLEAR!"

"Clear," the other healer confirmed.

Hermione shocked Ginny again and move to breathe for her. "God damn you, Ginny!" she said in between breaths. "I just got you back!"

"Nothing," Healer Zambini said.

Hermione continued to force her breath into Ginny's lungs. "Don't you leave me again."

"Nothing," Healer Zambini said again.

Slowly, Hermione's efforts ceased and she broke down, her tears coming in waves as she sobbed on Ginny's chest. "You promised me, Ginny," she cried softly. "You promised me."

Healer Zambini simply sat there, stunned at the turn of events that had left her superior, a woman who had never let the horrors of being a healer show, distraught, crying her soul out on her patient's unmoving chest.

* * *

"I tried to warn him."

Ginny jumped away from the window, spinning to find the voice that had spoken.

"Is it so difficult to find what you seek?" the woman asked her voice scornful and mocking. Ginny shrank under the glare of the cold, emerald green, eyes that met hers.

While her eyes never left Ginny's, the red haired woman began to move around her, circling like a shark stalking its unsuspecting prey; waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Ginny turned with the woman, terrified of breaking eye contact, yet at the same time desperately wishing for the woman's attention to be directed elsewhere.

"I told him life would pass him by," the woman said. Her voice was only a whisper, yet it cut through Ginny's senses, holding her in raptured attention as easily as Professor Snape held the attention of his trembling students. "Though I never would have believed that the girl who he is bonded with, whose very soul is tied to his, would forsake him."

Somehow, through her fear, Ginny found her voice. "Lily?" she asked in wonder.

The woman paused in her attack for only the briefest moment. "Who knew you were so weak of mind," she struck disdainfully.

Ginny quailed under the continued onslaught of Lily's words. Unimaginably harsh, so venomous, so like the voice that lived in her nightmares, so like the voice of Tom Riddle; Lily's voice slashed into her, the pain of it as real as if a knife had been drawn across her breast.

"Who knew you were so weak of heart," Lily hissed.

Reminded of the first time she had failed Harry, Ginny was reduced to the frightened girl who had begged the memory of Tom Riddle to let her go, to stop using her to hurt the other students. Dark magic had claimed her, and nearly killed Harry as a result. "I…," she began.

"And now," Lily cut her off, "after you have crawled back to him and he has forgiven you, you would leave him a second time. You would leave not only him... but two, daughters."

Unable to bear the pain of Lily's gaze, Ginny had dropped her eyes to the ground. Now, her head snapped back up.

"Yes, you have a newborn daughter."

Ginny's eyes showed the question in her heart.

"She is in perfect health. Though I don't see what it matters to you. You who makes such _pitiful_ efforts to return to her."

"I…" Ginny began again.

"To think," Lily cut her off once more, "that my son, after everything he has done, after all the pain, the suffering, the prophecy, after all of that," Lily stopped circling Ginny, her eyes moving up and down her once in revulsion, "he has been rewarded, with you," she finished.

Something snapped in Ginny, and the fear she felt for this woman's judgement faded. Her anger began to mount, and the girl who had thrown the diary of Tom Riddle away, the girl who stole it back in an attempt to save Harry, the girl who had defended Harry's back while he fought the Dark Lord emerged. Without realizing it she softly retorted, "What gives you the right?"

"Hold your tongue, girl," Lily snarled stepping so her face was only inches from Ginny's.

Instead of frightening her, Lily's aggression only increased Ginny's anger. "Who are you to judge me, when he has forgiven me?" Ginny growled back at her.

"I am his mother," Lily hissed.

"And I am his wife," Ginny retorted.

"And I have stood by," Lily continued as if Ginny hadn't spoken, "watching him suffer his entire life, unable to help, not given the chance you have before you. And now, I am forced to watch your _sorry_ efforts to return to him. I have every right to judge you!"

"Sorry efforts," Ginny shouted. "Do you see how many windows there are?"

"Weak hearted fool, he is right there!" Lily shouted pointing to Ginny's right.

Ginny turned and gasped. Instantly she moved to the window. Unhesitatingly her hand moved to the surface and touched it. Her heart plummeted when nothing happened.

"What's wrong? Why am I still here?" she cried, her hand falling to her side.

"Because you didn't find it, I did!" Lily snapped.

Ginny's eyes never left the window, and her tears began to flow when it changed. She stood there, immobilized by having been so close, yet so far at the same instant.

"You have little time left, why do you just stand there?" Lily asked demanded.

Ginny didn't respond other than to simply stare at the scene in front of her. The life that was hers but wasn't.

"What will it take to get you to fight?" Lily screamed at her.

"Fight what?" Ginny asked in a whisper. "Fight the windows that stretch endlessly? Fight the Gods who seem intent on tormenting me?" Ginny's anger at the unjustness of the torment she was enduring brought forth a furious tirade that she directed at Lily. "What do you want me to fight? You?" she shouted. "Should I fight the fear of not seeing Stephanie marry? Or perhaps that I may never hold my newborn daughter in my arms, do I fight that?" she demanded. "What do I fight, the emptiness in my heart because I can no longer feel my bond with Harry?! What? What do I fight?!" Ginny stopped her rant, her face red and blotchy with rage, her chest heaving, and glared at Lily.

Lily gave her a satisfied smirk.

Thrown, Ginny could only gape for a moment before asking, "What?"

Lily raised an eyebrow at her in reply.

Suddenly, Ginny knew what it was that had told her to touch the window that Lily had shown her. She clutched at her chest, gasping, "Our bond." Her eyes focused on Lily, who continued to do nothing other than smile slightly back at her. "I was looking with my eyes when I need to look with my heart."

"You have little time left," Lily replied.

Ginny closed her eyes and allowed herself to float towards the thread like tendrils that fluttered in the vast chasm of time and distance that separated her from Harry. Once before, they had led her to him and now she reached across them to find him again. As she allowed herself to sink into the bond, the threads grew in thickness and life, weaving themselves together, adding more strength to the growing force.

Ginny opened her eyes and glanced at her surroundings. The sheer number of windows that had at one time stretched beyond infinity had decreased. While those immediately in her vision, flashed with images of a life closer to what she knew hers to be. Still she instantly knew they were not what she was looking for.

Ginny now understood what was being asked of her. Nothing, not even death, could sever the bond between her and Harry. But it was damaged, broken in a sense, and it demanded to be whole once more if she was to find him. Her eyes closed again, and she attempted to feel with only her heart. Setting the mind, with all its trappings of knowledge, fear, past wrongs committed against it, and past wrongs it had committed against others, aside. This was the bonding of souls that she and Harry had completed so many years ago. Trust in the one you sought; allow them to cross the barriers of the physical world. Allow them to pass the defenses the mind would place to protect the heart. Allow their heart to beat in you, for you. Allow them to know, everything.

Tears flowed unnoticed down her cheeks as the mental and physical pain of her deepest, darkest fears were laid bare. The mind used the most intimate moments of her life as defense against what the heart asked for, and once more she trusted not to be judged, once more she trusted in the heart that was her other half, and as the last traps of the mind melted away, where there should only have been Harry, she also found the souls of Stephanie and her newborn daughter.  
Ginny slowly opened her eyes and gazed at the one window that now wrapped around her in a perfect circle. She watched as Hermione and Healer Zambini frantically ran their wands over her body; and the midwife, trying to hush a screaming infant, looked on from the side. Her brothers; Ron, Fred, George, her parents and the twins wives Katie and Susan sat patiently in the living room of the Burrow; unaware of what was taking place in Ginny's room above them. Harry and Stephanie both stood from the bench in the garden and started towards the house.

Lily moved to stand next to Ginny; reaching to touch the window, tears streamed down her face when she did. Ginny tentatively reached her hand to Lily's. Lily turned and pulled Ginny into her arms holding her daughter-in-law like she had dreamed of holding her son so many times.

"Tell him that going back, despite the coma and all that followed, was the right choice to make. Tell him that his mother and father love him and are so proud of the man he has become. Tell him he chose his wife well.

"Thank you," Ginny said quietly to her.

Lily pulled away from her and her hand moved to Ginny's cheek. "Go," she said quietly. "Go, daughter of mine."

Ginny moved in to embrace her again, and Lily responded by crushing her tightly in her arms. She held her, unwilling to let go of this tie to her son and granddaughter until a chill went through her body. Quickly she pushed Ginny towards the window. "You must go now," she pleaded urgently.

Even as she reached for the wall, Ginny could feel the cold seeping around her ankles, working its way up her body. Just as her hand touched the window, the dark took her and she knew no more.

* * *

Only the midwife was aware of the door to Ginny's room opening. Her ashen face met Harry's gaze and the concerned looks of Ginny's parents, brothers, and their wives. She couldn't form any words to speak as they took in the scene in front of them.

"Help, Healer Zambini," Stephanie said to the midwife as she took her newborn sister from her. The midwife started in surprise, but moved anyways. Her job was to provide comfort, and instinct took over as she moved to the Healer.  
Harry settled on his knees next to Hermione and pulled her away from Ginny. She turned to him, her cries wracking her body as he held her tight and tried to quiet her. She wasn't aware of Harry's hand moving to rest on Ginny's heart, that Stephanie had taken her newborn sister from the midwife and placed her against Ginny's chest, or that Stephanie's hand now rested next to Harry's on her mother's body.

Harry used his other hand to lift Hermione's face to his, and it was all she could do to meet his eyes.

"Harry,.. I…" she choked.

"She's fine, Hermione," Harry interrupted her.

Hermione tried to focus through her tears on Harry, unable to comprehend how he could be smiling at her when she knew that Ginny was…

Harry placed Hermione's hand next to his on Ginny's chest. "Feel with your heart, Hermione," Harry said quietly.

"Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Do you love her?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded.

With his free hand, Harry pulled Hermione tightly to him. "Then listen with your heart," he said quietly.

Hermione hesitated for a second but something in Harry's embrace told her to do as he asked. Her mind shifted to her memories of Ginny, the time she had spent comforting her at Harry's bedside while he was in the coma. She had understood what drove her away from Harry's side, and had truly shared her happiness at adopting Stephanie and when she had married Geoffrey. The memories of the pain from the arguments they had had when Harry had woken from the coma and she had begged Ginny to go see him, the hurt of losing her sister and the thought that she had only just gotten Ginny back. The realization that she couldn't bear to lose her again, not without telling her that she had forgiven her.

Unimaginably faint, Hermione felt a tiny thump against her palm and then, another, stronger than the first. Almost imperceptible, she felt her hand rise and fall. Cautiously, she pulled away from Harry, searching his face for some sign that what she felt was real. He smiled and nodded once. Slowly she turned to Ginny.

Ginny's open eyes and tired smile greeted her. "Does this mean I can still name her after you?" she asked softly.

Hermione started crying again, through her tears she smiled and nodded. "Please," she said quietly. Ginny returned her smile and clasped Hermione's hand in hers before sighing deeply and closing her eyes again.

Ron moved next to Hermione and sat down beside her. "Do we even want to know what just happened here?" he asked, as the rest of the family crowded around the bed.

"I think the only one who can really tell us is sleeping," Harry replied quietly. He stood up and moved so he could get a closer look at his new daughter.

Stephanie slipped her arm around his waist and held him tight. "She's beautiful," she said quietly.

"You're naming her after Hermione?" Susan asked slipping her hand into Fred's.

"Her name is Hermione Grace Potter," Stephanie replied.

"Grace?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Stephanie said pulling him tighter.

"I like it," Harry said reaching down to touch the infant's cheek.

* * *

Author's note:

I'm still looking for someone interested in doing some art work for me. I would like a cover image for my newest HP fanfic. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

Sorcerer's Muse


	13. Chapter 13: March 2021

Please note the world of Harry Potter belongs to JKR. I'm only playing with her creation. Also the story image was a free download I found. Thank you to whomever it belongs. I will remove it immediately if asked.

* * *

Author's note:

As with all my older works this is being posted from my old site to help tide people over till my new works are ready. I would say this story represents a clear step forward in my writing. It is better structured and is much better at getting my point across than any of my other old works. It still has a number of things I would do differently if I were to write it now, but again I am past the point of editing these old works. Still I hope you all find it enjoyable to read and I hope it is worth a review or two from you. Because while your thoughts won't help this work, they will help my next works. I thereby challenge anyone who reads, like it or loath it, to leave a review. I will do my best to respond to all signed reviews.

Also, I'm perfectly aware that with the title of the story and a quick google search you can find the whole thing. Certainly I can't stop you from doing so. Just know that I while I have not taken my works down from the old site, I no longer check anything there. If you want an answer to a question you're going to have to contact me here.

Hope you like it.

Authors' note#2:

I suppose I should have expected this as my old work is going up. It was a very different life and more than five years since I said I was done with fan fiction. Now I'm back writing again. I'm on a new site with a new penname. A simple google search of the titles of my old work will direct you to mugglenet and the penname of huskers. So, I might as well say that yes, I use to post on mugglenet under the penname of huskers. Please read the bio there that directs you to find any new work as well as my old work here under the new penname of Sorcerer's Muse. Yes, I am one in the same. If you have any doubts that I am the same person and that all the work posted here is indeed mine, please go to mugglenet. Look up huskers' page and send an email with an appropriate code word of your choosing. I will then post that code word on my profile here to prove that I am the same person. **Note, I will not post anything vulgar or inappropriate.**

As always, thank you for reading my work.

Sorcerer's Muse

And one more: When trying to hide from the past, it just seems natural to me for Harry to use the name James Black. Hiding is one thing. Completely dishonoring his parents and Sirius is altogether another.

* * *

**Broken**

**Chapter 13: March 2021**

* * *

Stephanie had wanted her wedding to take place at the lodge. In order to facilitate that, Harry and Ginny had rented out every one of the lodge's cabins and rooms. Harry had performed some kind of a charm on the staff at the lodge and they had all decided they needed a week off at the same time. Only Bill and his wife, Maggie, as they both knew about the magic world already, had stayed to run the place.

While Harry and Bill, despite all of Arthur Weasley's _help_, had managed to keep the rest of the lodge from falling down, Maggie and Molly had effortlessly bonded in the kitchen. Using a combination of magic from Molly and Maggie's Muggle kitchen appliances, they had easily kept up with the demands of feeding the small army of guests that had been arriving throughout the week.

Now, Arthur Weasley tagged happily along behind Bill, asking question after question about all the Muggle items in the kitchen of the lodge.

"Don't touch that!" Bill yelped when Arthur's hand moved inspect the beaters of the giant mixer. A second later the mixer started up and Arthur swallowed hard as he realized what had almost become of his fingers.

"I never realized how dangerous some of this Muggle stuff was," Arthur muttered.

"It's not dangerous," Bill replied patting his new friend on the back. "You're just too curious for your own good."

"Now you sound like my wife," Arthur replied with a laugh.

"To tell you the truth," Bill said under his breath, "if Maggie catches me in here I'll never hear the end of it. She'll blame me for messing up the wedding cake. And not only was it finished yesterday, I haven't been within 20 feet of the thing."

"Molly usually chases me out of out of our kitchen too, says I cause the biscuits to come out bitter if I try to help her."

"Well then, before we both get in trouble, let's get out of here."

Arthur chuckled appreciatively at the similarities between himself and Bill as he followed him out of the kitchen into the dinning hall. The two of them moved across the hall to where Harry and Ron were trying to corral Ron's youngest son, Michael, and feed Harry's daughter, Hermione.

"I thought the idea was to get her to eat it," Bill laughed as Hermione spit out the mouthful that Harry had just given her.

"Grampa!" Michael shouted with glee, darting out of Ron's reach and bolting to Arthur.

"She hates peas," Harry said to Bill. "I don't know what Gin was thinking bringing this, but it's all that's in the bag."

"Why don't you just apparate home and get something else?" Bill asked as Harry attempted to get Hermione to take another spoonful.

"Can't, the wards I set around this place to keep people out, also keep people in."

"Here, give me that," Bill said taking the spoon and jar of baby peas from Harry. "Come on, Hermione, take a bite for Grampa Bill."

"She won't take it, Bill," Harry said.

Hermione made a face at Harry, smiled at Bill and opened her mouth to take the spoon that Bill offered.

"Seems like she'll take it just fine," Bill retorted spooning up another mouthful for the infant.

"Guess she likes Bill more than you, Harry," Ron said giving Harry a shove.

"She's only taking it because she knows Bill will give her a cookie after she's done," Harry grumped.

"Why don't you two go see how Stephanie is, James? Arthur and I seem to be having better luck with these two than either of you anyways."

"That sounds like a good idea. Leave a couple of old men alone with the little ones for a bit, why don't you?" Arthur added.

Harry glanced at Ron who shrugged in reply. "I think we're being dismissed," Ron said. "Though I'm leaving you to check on Stephanie, I have no desire to enter that little corner of the world at this particular time."

"Coward," Harry retorted.

"Yep," Ron said heading off to where Fred and George were putting up more candles.

Harry eyed them warily and said, "Make sure those two aren't up to anything, will you, Ron?"

"That was the general idea," Ron answered.

* * *

Harry rapped softly on the door to Bill's office. "Gin?" he called.

"Harry, is that you?" came the exasperated reply.

"Can I come in?"

A moment later the door to the office opened, and a harried looking Ginny along with an equally agitated Hermione exited the room. "I'm glad you're here," Ginny gushed. "Go see if you can get her to calm down. She's driving us batty."

"Batty? More like insane," Hermione quipped.

"I can hear you, you know," Stephanie called from inside the room.

"You didn't leave Ron with both Michael and Hermione did you?" Ginny asked ignoring her oldest daughter.

"Actually, they're with Bill and your father. Ron is minding your brothers."

"The twins?"

"Yes."

Stephanie suddenly appeared in the doorway of the office. Wagging her finger at Hermione she said, "You go tell those feather-brained gits that if there is so much as one, I repeat one, Canary Cream or any other product of their creation at my wedding, that a once a month, nasty, itchy rash covering their private regions will be the least of their problems."

Harry, and Ginny eyed Stephanie curiously, while Hermione gaped at her.

"What?" she snapped.

"How do you know about that?" Hermione demanded.

"So they have sought outside help," Stephanie said.

"Their case has made its way through some of the departments at St. Mungoe's," Hermione replied with a slight grin starting to cross her features. "The head of the Reversal of Magical Mistakes Department showed it to me about a month ago. I chalked it up to a culmination of a lifetime of experiments gone wrong, and if they were lucky it would wear off given enough time."

"You hexed my brothers? When?" Ginny asked, her eyes glinting with amusement.

"It was just after I graduated. I was in a bad mood one day, and they wouldn't give up on the once a month comments; and it's not exactly a hex."

"And shortly after that they developed their own once a month issue?" Harry asked laughing out loud.

"Right," Stephanie answered.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked a gleeful smile on her face. She had been the victim of one too many pranks by the twins to feel sorry for them.

"On no, I'm not telling anyone. You just go tell them no pranks, jokes, or any of their products at my wedding and no more itching."

"So the wedding is back on then?" Ginny asked after she stopped laughing.

"What do you mean back on?" Harry asked.

"Of course the wedding is on, when was it ever off?" Stephanie asked.

"Not five minutes ago, you were ranting about canceling the whole thing," Ginny retorted.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Stephanie said.

Hermione and Ginny both rolled their eyes at her. "See," Ginny said to Harry.

"Batty," Hermione said.

"Insane," Ginny replied. "We're going to leave you with her," she added to Harry.

Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and started to lead her away. "Come on, we need to get the mother-of-the-bride to her seat, and I want to see the look on the twins' faces when we tell them we know how they can get rid of their little problem. "You need to walk her down the isle in less than twenty minutes, Harry. See that you're not late," Hermione called over her shoulder as she and Ginny turned the corner.

Harry turned to Stephanie. "Off?" he asked.

Stephanie's face turned white. "I can't be getting married," she moaned.

Harry blinked. "Erm… You are though… Aren't you?"

"Yes! No!.. Oh, I don't know," Stephanie cried in frustration.

Harry pushed Stephanie into the office and closed the door. "What's going on, Steph?"

Stephanie simply moved into his arms and sagged against him. Harry wrapped his arms around her while her body trembled. "How do you know, Harry?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Know what, Steph?"

"Know if it's the right person?"

Harry pushed her back and looked down into her upturned face. "Shouldn't you have asked yourself that before you said yes?"

"I did, but now I'm not so sure," Stephanie replied in exasperation. "What if he leaves, or cheats, or I meet someone new after we're married that I like more?"

"All those things could happen, Steph."

"You're not helping, Harry," Stephanie replied throwing her hands up in the air.

"I'm telling you the truth."

"I want to hear that everything is going to be ok."

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I'm not going to lie to you, Steph. Look at me and your mother."

"Exactly!" Stephanie said.

"Yes, exactly," Harry replied leveling his gaze on her.

"What do you mean?" she asked after a moment.

"Do you love David?"

"Yes, of course I love him."

"He's the man of your dreams?"

"Yes, he is," Stephanie smiled happily.

"Dreams are not always happy, Steph. Your mother is the woman of my dreams, both good and bad. She populates my worst nightmares both real and fabricated. The fact is, despite everything we have been through, she trusts me, I trust her, and… we love each other. To hold her now, I'm willing to deal with anything that she might do in the future that could hurt me.

"The sooner you accept that David, and for that matter no one, is perfect. That it is almost inevitable that he will do something, someday, that hurts you and that you will likely do the same to him, the better off you and your marriage will be. It doesn't have to be an affair, or something major like what happened between your mother and I.

"Someday, he _will_ forget your anniversary and you _will_ forget his birthday, life is difficult, mistakes are made; all you can really do is apologize and hope for forgiveness. That's what a marriage is, Steph. If you're waiting for something to tell you your life with David is going to be perfect, then you may as well call it off, because you will wait until the day you're body is laid into the ground. But, you will have lost everything in the process."

Stephanie didn't reply right away, but sat down in the chair and contemplated his answer before she said, "You wouldn't change anything between you and Mum, would you?" she asked softly.

"I have some regrets; there are some things that I sometimes wish had been different. But no, I wouldn't change things. I love your mother, more today than I ever have in the past. I'm not interested in knowing the Ginny who didn't, at one time, leave me, nor am I interested in being the Harry who somehow managed to wake from the coma he was in after only a few weeks instead of nine years. I'll never know, but perhaps those two people did something to each other later in life that was much worse than what we did do to each other."

Again Stephanie thought about what Harry had said before she asked, "What did you ever do to Mum?"

"I'm not sure I can really explain that, Steph. It's easy to see what your mother did to me; it's much harder to see what I did to her."

"Try, Harry… For me."

Harry sighed and walked over to the window where he stared out it while he thought about his answer. "After your father died, your mother really had no one to turn to for comfort. Her family was there, but not like she needed, and she knew they wouldn't be until she made amends for shutting them out. She also knew, that before they would truly accept her apology, she had to make some kind of peace with me.

"I knew your mother was looking for me long before she found me. I knew how much she was hurting. I knew she didn't expect or even hope that I would forgive her, but I couldn't see past my own anger and pride to even let her say she was sorry. I made her wait years before I allowed her to apologize.

"For a time, I reveled in her pain, because I wanted her to feel what I had felt, to understand the pain she had inflicted on me. But in the end, I understood that she had known all along and that my actions were only hurting her and myself more. I wasted years that we could have been together. I wasted years that I could have known you.

"Some people would say I could hardly be blamed for acting the way I did. And the truth is, we wouldn't be where we are now if I had acted differently, but the fact is that my actions hurt her," Harry paused and turned from the window to face Stephanie before he finished.

"You ask if I could change anything, and the things I would most like to change are my own actions, things I did to hurt your mother, not things she did that hurt me. But even those things, I can't change, wouldn't change; because then, neither of us is, who we are now. And I like who we are now. I have a beautiful wife; together we have a beautiful daughter." Harry crossed the floor and stood in front of Stephanie; reaching out with his hand, he brushed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "I have you in my life, and I love all three of you more than you will ever know."

Stephanie reached up and placed her hand on Harry's, nuzzling her cheek against his palm. "Thank you, Harry,"

Harry smiled down at her and moved his hand to brush a tear from her face. "So the wedding is on?"

"Yes."

"It's time then."

Stephanie took a deep breath and stood up. "Hold me for just a minute first?" she asked.

Harry pulled her close and wrapped her gently in his arms. "You know you can always come to me, Steph."

"Yes, but this is the last time that you or Mum will be my first choice."

There was a soft knock as the door to the office cracked open "Stephanie?" Ginny's voice said quietly.

"Come in, Mum."

Ginny opened the door and stepped into the room. "I'm not interrupting am I?"

Stephanie pulled away from Harry and moved to embrace her mother. "No, Mum, I'm glad you're here."

Ginny squeezed Stephanie tight for a moment before pushing her away slightly. "It's time, baby."

"Mum…"

"I know, you hate that name," Ginny interrupted.

"Mum."

"Yes?"

"Please don't ever stop calling me that."

"Never, baby," Ginny replied pulling Stephanie tight again.

* * *

Harry walked down the aisle with Stephanie on his arm; coming to a stop a few feet from David and Bill. He glanced at David who could only stare at Stephanie in awe and smiled to himself before turning his attention to Bill.

"Who gives this woman to be wed this day?" Bill called into the hall.

Before Harry could reply, Stephanie put her hand over his mouth and the pulled him down to whisper in his ear. Harry pulled away slightly, his eyes wide and questioning. "Please?" Stephanie asked him.

Harry glanced at Ginny who gave him a questioning look and then back to Stephanie. Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Her mother and her father do."

End.

* * *

Author's note:

Well, that's it, the last of my old works. Next up, the story I've been promising you all for months now. Hope you like it as much as you have liked everything else.

Sorcerer's Muse


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